Bad Day? Don’t Fret – It Will Get Better!

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘<The Lord said to Jeremiah,> “How awful that day will be! No other will be like it. It will be a time of trouble for Jacob, but he will be saved out of it.”’ (Jeremiah 30:7)

There are only a very small handful of things I miss about full-time employment, and almost all are about the camaraderie with others, or the excitement of going to fun and exotic places like Afghanistan or Iraq, real vacation hot-spots if you like driving down roads that could have IEDs on or in them, or getting a mortar attack during breakfast. The former I do miss, the latter not so much. I certainly don’t miss the paperwork, the proposal writing, or the imposing deadlines.

One item I certainly do not miss is my daily commute into and out of Tampa. Early in my career, the commute was actually very soothing; little traffic and it was somewhat relaxing to drive and have time to either wind up for work or wind down from it when going home. Southwest Florida began to grow in population over the 27 years of commuting to MacDill AFB, however, and with it the amount of traffic.

Interstates 75 and 275 began to be clogged with congestion, and with it came frustration and aggressive drivers. There were many near misses, and then there began the crashes. Weekly at first, then increasing to where it became more rare for a commute without at least one accident than a commute with several. Though there were some that unfortunately were horrifying and fatal, most accidents were fender-benders or rear-end bumps.

Though the fender-benders and rear-end bumps were always off to the side, with the occupants of the cars involved out and exchanging their insurance information and the Florida Highway Patrol often on-scene or approaching it, this always led to others ‘rubber-necking’, slowing down to view the the anti-climatic aftermath.

This always caused a ripple effect where those who first came upon the scene could keep moving; those behind them got into the accordion motion of ‘Stop, Go, Stop, Go’ for the next hour. Multiply this 2 or 3 times over, and that once-relaxing daily commute became a daily nightmare. So I thank the Lord for the ability to retire and only commute to and from the office I set up in the house. (The great thing is having easy access to snacks, though this is also a problem for a full-figured fellow like myself.)

I look back at the accidents I passed, and while I believe everyone was OK for most of them, I prayed that they were OK, and that their day’s events were not greatly impacted by the delays an accident provides; not only for that day but the time to repair or replace the damaged vehicles, the follow-up with the insurance (and later the higher rates), and those aches and pains that can come days after an accident occurs. 

My message has been ‘BE PREPARED, BE AWARE, PLAN ACCORDINGLY’ over the years, but sometimes something occurs that is unpredictable.  That is why we have insurance, of course, but the aftereffects and indirect issues are some things we can’t be ready for all the time.  How can we deal with these things when they do occur?

The context of the verse comes from the (to the Israelites) the unexpected pain and suffering that came over them from their defeat and exile by the Babylonians.  They were all in terror as their lives suddenly went topsy-turvy and what they had known was no longer.  Like an auto accident, it happened suddenly and although there may have been some warning it couldn’t be stopped from happening.  Some were likely injured as well (there were battles that occurred) so not only did they lose possessions but perhaps some lost a limb or had a debilitating injury.

But at the end of verse, the Lord says Jacob (the Israelites) will be saved out of it, they would be restored.  This does not mean everything would go back as it was.  The injuries would have to heal, and their homes they would not immediately return to (and after 70 years of captivity, likely wouldn’t go home).  Like an auto accident, the car may be repaired but it will never be ‘as new’. 

With the Lord, the people would have the scars and memories to remind them and hopefully learn the lessons to follow God more closely, to obey Him and heed His Son.  The most important thing is that when a tragedy occurs or when an unexpected situation arises, always remember God is in control and He is always there for you and will lead you back onto safer ground!