Dear Saints.
June is now here. Can you hear the song of the air conditioners as they hum during the days and nights? Theirs is truly a song that doesn’t end until the fall. June is the month we say good-bye to the spring, (which this year was I believe only a couple days) and hello to the long hot days of summer! Bring out the sprinklers and let the cooling begin; open those fire hydrants and let the blasts of cold water begin! Summer is here and we are going to make the best of it!
Speaking of trying to stay cool during these hot days that have come upon us, I need to make a confession. It started on a Saturday afternoon, and what should have been a simple afternoon run to the store turned out to be any-thing but simple. Maria and I have now lived in downtown St. Louis for about two years. During that time there has been nonstop construction. There are the buildings all around us that are being rehabbed for apartments, and then there are the utility companies that are constantly closing whole blocks downtown and digging up the streets to update the pipes. It is virtually a maze at times to make it back to our home. This past Saturday, to add to the street closings and barricades, there was some kind of graduation, a ballgame letting out, and a parade happening right down Market Street and around the neighborhood. The parade must have started right when I was checking out of the last store, having just checked off my last item on my “to get list”. Leaving the store I was joyful, I was even praising our God with one my favorite songs. Life was beautiful, I had accomplished the goal, I had completed the task, and I was coming home a hero of sorts. I was victorious! I was just about to raise my voice an octave and really get my praise on, when I noticed just ahead of me a policeman redirecting the traffic away from my way home. No problem I thought, this is nothing new, I know an alternate route from this point that I can take and it is only a minor setback. So, I continued to praise God, how be it, with a little lower volume and not quite as passionately. Two blocks into my new way home, bam I hit another road block directing me farther away from home. This would happen a few more times and with each detour the traffic would increase. I now sat in my car with my emotions running high. No longer could praise be heard from my car, but now, only complaining, and whining about the unfairness of roadblocks could be heard. Need I say, there were a few times when I sounded like Peter around the fire when he denied knowing Jesus for the third time. One hour later, I finally arrived in front of our garage, tired and beat up. What should have been a ten-minute task, turned out to be over an hour. As I began to think how much time I had wasted, the thought came to me. Why didn’t I use the extra time sitting in my car, in traffic, to enjoy the presence of God? Instead of letting my blood pressure rise, why didn’t I let my praise rise? Could it be that was His plan for me all along? We need to take life’s detours and make them our platform to praise our Savior! On my way up to our place, I repented and asked God next time he gives me a chance to praise him, I will do just that.
Praising Him in the detours of life, Pastor Rick