When You Find Yourself in the Ditch

It was a drizzly Saturday morning and Savannah needed to be in town. We had experienced a terrible lightening storm the night before and so I mentioned we might want to leave a little earlier than usually just in case our country roads were littered with downed branches. Boy, was that an understatement. We left the house 15 minutes earlier than normal and headed down our county roads only to be met with trees crossing the road. I attempted a three  five point turn, backed up a quarter of a mile and tried three different ways to get to the interstate...all to no avail. But the last option presented itself in a different form. The way the tree had fallen, only the top, most narrow part of the tree was covering the road, so very slowly and carefully I drove over the slender tree trunk. SUCCESS!

After momentary celebration with Savannah, we headed on our merry way to town, and 20 minutes later, I dropped her off at her destination. Thinking I might surprise my guys back at home, I whipped into the Whataburger drive thru and picked up some breakfast for us and then headed back to the house.

While on the way home, I called Bruce and informed him of all the trees down and encouraged him to call the county because I didn't think our chainsaw was going to be able to handle getting these trees out of the road. He asked how I had made it into town and I informed him of my spectacular driving skills and he strongly advised me to not drive over any more trees since we had just replaced all the tires on the expedition just the week before.... (oops). But.....

Nearly 20 minutes later, retracing the route I had successfully driven from my house, I came across the same narrow tree crossing the road. I had to make a decision....obey my husband and possibly die of starvation/abandonment/coyotes/wild hogs.... in the woods because no one would ever find me ....or drive carefully back over the branch one more time to get home (because after all, I had made it over the branch once with no problem). And then I saw it....

A small grassy shoulder that appeared to be at least large enough for part of my tires to cross over and not run over the branch. I thought to myself..."well, replacing 2 tires is better than replacing 4." So very carefully and slowly I drove toward the grassy shoulder... and very quickly as my tires met the wet, soggy, mushy shoulder, my car began to sink...further and further into the small shoulder, until I was almost sideways looking from the drivers window into a three foot ditch. I kid you not. I can't make this stuff up.

The first thought that crossed my mind...."Great...now I have to call Bruce!" I dreaded it. In fact, I looked over at the three breakfast meals from whataburger and thought..."If I ration these out, how long will I live?" And then I realized that sooner or later I was going to need a bathroom and since I was sitting sideways with my door looking into the ditch, I had better figure out something. So I called Bruce...and told him I was stuck and needed help. And within minutes he and Tucker were driving down the road. When they got close enough I saw Tucker shaking his head, laughing. And then I saw Bruce, first looking with amazement at how someone could actually have done this magnificent maneuver and then I saw concern. And then I started crying, because what he saw, from his viewpoint was different from me. He told me to get out of the car....which was an uphill climb out of the passenger side door, he walked me to our other vehicle, saw how upset I was and told me to go home, he would take care of the mess. And he did...with the help of our very kind neighbor.

So, now that I've had a month to think about what happened...I've come up with a few spiritual lessons we can learn from my ditch decision...

1. Sometimes, when we realize we have made the wrong choice, it's humbling to call on the Lord. We have to admit that we did the wrong thing...that our choice wasn't the wisest and that we didn't follow God's plan.

2. Sometimes things are not as they appear - that shoulder looked completely strong enough to bear the weight of my car. Temptation is a lot like that...looks good on the outside, but the inside is a mushy mess.

3. The view from the ditch is scary- we don't always think ahead to the "what if this doesn't work out the way I have planned" but, careful planning and evaluation is a character trait of the wise. So look at all the angles and consider the risks before you do something adventurous! God calls us to risk but He also calls us to wisdom.

4. The view that spectators get can also be scary. When I saw Bruce's face I realized he was very concerned. We don't often think how our mistakes might impact those we love.

5. We don't plan to make big mistakes. Want to know something funny??? I was wearing my pajamas when this happened. I had NEVER done this before...I had seen women at school who dropped their kids off in their pajama pants and a t-shirt and I thought to myself....I'm not getting out of the car...I'll just slip on some flip flops and be back in a jiffy. But that's not what happened....Emergencies and foolish choices don't wait until you're all dolled up. We don't get to pick when bad stuff happens.

6. God, our Savior and Rescuer, took on the responsibility of all my ditch decisions that I have and ever will make. He came in and rescued me almost 40 years ago and has been helping me, guiding me and rescuing me every day since. When we receive our Lord as our Savior He keeps saving us through sanctification daily.

So many lessons...So if you find yourself in a ditch of your own making...call on the only rescuer who can help us! He is in the business of saving us....will there be scars? will there be scrapes and bruises and consequences? Yes, but He is our Rescuer and we can trust Him with our recovery. He knows how to heal us even from the pain we inflict on ourselves.

That's my story...
Gina

PS- For those wondering..... No Whataburger was harmed in the rescue....all meals were safely microwaved and consumed.