I first posted my blog post, Bug Guts, on September 23, 2010.  Since then I have referenced it a few times because it was a good lesson that day following a very, very hard stretch of years.  The 22nd of September was very hard for me that year and it’s a date that still tears at my heart thought time is softening the blow.  Even though the pain around that date subsides there is other pain, other dates, other events and the emotions I was having while writing it and thoughts that surrounded me are still appropriate today.  The 22nd now represents an unraveling, an exhibition of what evil in this world can do.  The 23rd represents a new day, a new hope and the power of what God can do to make all things new.  For the first time in a long time, I’m feeling hope and Bug Guts reminds me of what happens when we survive the storm.

I’m driving home from Abilene and the windshield is a mess of bug guts and other stuff from the road that makes looking out the windshield a mess, not impossible to see but certainly not clear.  Add driving at a rate of speed that might just be a smidge over the speed limit and it’s a recipe for a mess.  I can’t see clearly but I’m still going 80-to-nothing (no, I wasn’t going 90).  I seem to go through life that way too often.  Anyway, I’m rolling down the highway and all of the sudden I am driving through a downpour.  Buckets of rain are falling and I have to turn the windshield wipers on high to try and keep up.  I’m listening to the rhythm of the wipers and doing my best to see the lines on the road and then, poof, the storm is left behind.  It is then that I notice I am driving with a much cleaner and clearer windshield.

It’s a true story but also a story of God.  I am speeding through life, going too fast, vision impaired and then I hit a storm.  As bad as the storm is, God uses it to slow me down and clean up with the windshield so I can see His desire for me more clearly.  The storm helped me, even though it caused some problems at the time, because it made me slow down, think and it helped clean my windshield so I could see my way more clearly. 

Thank you God for knowing what I need, always better than I know myself.

Grace and peace.