A few weeks ago, I had one of those days where it seems like everything was just a little off. Nothing majorly went wrong, but there were all kinds of small weird things.
There was one big thing that happened. Once a month, we provide groceries for the after school families in the program I oversee. I started my day by picking up three pallets of groceries that would be packed into boxes for these families. I was driving one of the trucks back to work and I dumped about half a pallet of groceries in the right hand lane of Highway 401 during rush hour traffic. The pallet was packed and wrapped poorly and unfortunately I found out while making a left hand turn (wasn’t going more than 5mph).
Nothing will disrupt your morning routine like sending 300-400 cans of veggies and 50 bottles of oil onto a busy road. When I pulled off, I wasn’t even sure what to think or what my first step to fix it was. Thankfully I had another volunteer in a truck behind me that was able to block the road. We moved all the groceries to the side of the road and then moved his truck into a turn lane so traffic could pass by. Then we started the long process of sorting and boxing up the groceries.
Amazingly, only around ten cans of veggie and one bottle of oil broke open and we were able to salvage everything else. But what should have taken thirty to forty-five minutes ended up taking about two hours. It was not really the way I wanted to start what was already going to be a twelve plus hour work day.
So many thoughts ran through my head when it happened. I mix of emotions as well. But as I was picking up groceries off the road, all I could do was smile and laugh. In that moment, I literally said, “Not today Satan.” I knew I had a long day ahead of me (now made even longer by having to pick up groceries off the road) and it would have been disastrous if I allowed myself to get angry, annoyed, or defeated.
“We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,”
2 Corinthians 10:5 ESV
As I said, there were many thoughts running through my head and many of those thoughts weren’t godly. Many of the thoughts would have been justified, but that didn’t make them any more godly. In that moment, I had to take my thoughts captive. I took a moment and took all the thoughts running through my head and made them stop. I took all those thoughts and made them obey Christ. I had to literally think, I know I want to be angry, but God has given me joy. I want to be frustrated, but I am going to be at peace. I want to yell, but I am going to praise.
This decision didn’t change the situation I was in, but it did change the impact it had on me. What could have derailed my entire day is now just something I look back on and laugh. I’ve also made some adjustments for my next grocery pick-up to ensure it doesn’t happen again. The storms of life are coming, but when we are standing on Jesus, the solid rock, they won’t tear us apart.
until next time…