It was a Tuesday morning. The office was crazy, as usual. The phone was ringing off the hook, I had to have a conference room and none were available. My boss needed this and that and she needed it yesterday. A young attorney that I work for was wanting to go over copies he needed made and yet another attorney had given me some dictation that he needed like last month and was standing over me asking how long until I'm done.
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About that time the phone rang again and it was Gabe. He started telling me how he didn't feel good and his stomach hurt and he needed to go to the doctor. Gabe isn't one who likes to go to the doctor so if he ever tells me he wants to go I stop and listen because obviously there is something wrong. I explained to him that things were crazy at my office and to go back to class, let me finish up and get everyone settled and that I would call the doctor and be on my way.
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For some reason when I left work I was still rushing. I couldn't seem to slow down. I was almost running to my truck and then weaving in and out of traffic all the way to his school. When I pulled up to the school I all but screeched the tires and ran inside the office. Naturally, Gabe just slowly came walking to the office. Even though he runs most everywhere he goes and he talks so fast you can barely understand him he moves slower than a turtle. It takes him forever to get dressed and when the mood hits him he just pokes along like he has all day to get from point A to point B.
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Finally, we jump into the truck and I zoom off. Once again I'm weaving in and out of traffic and my mind was racing with everything I had going on at work, at home, at the school, in the truck, you know, just normal Mom thoughts I guess. As we hit the interstate heading towards downtown Birmingham I began to get frustrated because people were randomly hitting their brakes. There was nothing in front of them, no animal had darted out (I mean hello we are on the interstate), there were no merging cars, no nothing they just all of a sudden seemed to find it acceptable to hit their brakes.
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"Why in the world are these crazy people hitting their brakes?" I asked outloud not really expecting an answer.
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"Because they see something" Gabe said.
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"Son," I explained "there is nothing in front of them. We are on the interstate and all they have to do is hit the gas and go!"
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"Mom," he said "what you need to understand is just because you don't see what they see doesn't mean it's not there."
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How true, how true. Just because I didn't see their obstacle didn't mean it wasn't there. So many times we go through life becoming frustrated with people. We never see their obstacle so we have a "get over it" attitude. It is their obstacle, not ours, so therefore we aren't going to see what they see. Doesn't mean the obstacle isn't there and it doesn't mean that what they are facing isn't a huge wall that they just can't figure out how to climb over it and what they need is someone to say 'Hey, put your foot in my hand and I'll lift you over to the other side.'
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2 Samuel 22:19 says "They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support." Why do we do that? Why do we confront people in the midst of their disaster/obstacle? You know when they tap their brakes maybe we need to just tap our brakes right along with them instead of blowing our horns!!
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