NOW I GET IT OR DO I??

I've ranged from the joker to the preacher in my blogging career but this may just be a confession or something close to it. It's difficult to decipher what you are experiencing until all your senses kid in. I'm told that in education the more of the senses you can involve the greater retention you will have. In other words sometimes it takes something extreme to teach you the absolute truth.

Not to long ago I found myself in a situation that I've experienced before but this time there was something different, an extreme. An extreme that made a world of difference . The mission was to replace a battery for a person that could not do it themselves, among many other things. It was some what inconvenient for me because of the extreme weather, bad cold, and it occurred at the end of a hard work day that started 11 hours before. The task took a long time considering I had preformed the task of replacing a battery myself and knew how long it should take. I keep my patience generator running full speed as the salesman worked to put this particular battery in.

OK, now you have a picture of what's going on so I can get to the meat. I had been waiting inside the parts store for quiet a while but decided I might help the guy installing the battery or at least urge him on some. Perhaps you have heard the phrase "colder that a well digger's ..." or " colder than a witch's ...", enough said. I have been cold before but after standing in this cold cold cold we had made some headway with getting this battery installed. As I took a step to get into the car to crank it, I almost busted my butt. MY FEET WERE DEAD, NO FEELING! It was like my legs were chopped off at the knees. After grabbing the car to assist me I made it in, cranked up, and waved goodbye. Needless to say I had an experience I'd never forget.

I'm sure you are comparing me to an old woman with loose teeth with my running off at the mouth but there is something important here.

I returned the car to the owner and then headed for home. I was hungry, it was dark, it was cold, cold, cold and I was aggravated at having to do something for someone who should have done it for themselves.

Now normally I "get off" on helping others. I mean it is a real "turn on" for me and the Holy Spirit of God will grab me and direct me to help folk even when I don't think about it, but at that time my spirit was rather dull and rebellious. As I was driving the highway north home, I was thinking about how my feet and lower legs had just gone dead from the cold. Ahead I could see a man walking the highway facing me and as it does a lot, my mind went to prayer of thanks for my home, my wife, my family, the meal I would have when I got home, and that God's blessing would be on that guy. There have been times when I have actually stopped to help someone and they have refused or maybe just didn't need any help but I can't say anything about that guy because I didn't stop............ I didn't stop! The cold was so bad I couldn't take it and he wasn't dressed much better than I for the weather. I knew how cold it was... I knew it because I had experienced it just a few minutes before.

It takes around 20-25 minutes to get home and this occurred about 15 minutes away from my door. The rest of the drive was a rush of shameful excuses as I tried to block out my lack of action for the concern of a human being with a need, but even more how I had failed my deepest felt mission in my life and the person that had set the pace for my life and shown that I am worthy of what He had done for me.

I cried.

"When did we see you LORD and give you water..."

"When did we give you food... or cloth you..."

"When you do this to the least... you have done it to ME."

I get it but I didn't. That incident has impacted me EVERYDAY since that moment of I 55 north bound when I saw "Mr. Least" and did nothing. Farther forgive me. Create in me a willing spirit to be cold, hungry, wet, hot, what ever you would will.