Thank God for the Telephone Pole

This past Saturday evening, Pam and my older daughter called to tell us that she would be late picking up our granddaughters.  Police were called to a car accident which occurred in front of their office building.  She needed to find out what was going on.  Especially since several of their employees were still working in the light of commercial flood lights smoothing over a great deal of concrete just poured that day.  Upon arrival, she discovered that a young male driver had been speeding and lost control of his Nissan sport’s car. He hit an old inactive telephone pole, veered off to the right, running over newly poured concrete tearing up the curbs, bounced off the 2^nd curb and landed abruptly in a low area that had dirt piled up on the back side of it.  The young driver ended up in the Rockwall Presbyterian Hospital still unconscious.

Our daughter discovered that three of their workers and two of their small children playing in a construction sand pile were straight in the path of the car until the telephone pole disrupted the trajectory barely missing the men and kids.  Without the telephone pole in the way, literally five people could easily have been killed, or severely injured.  Too boot, the driver did not have insurance.  The financial liability even with insurance would have been enormous for our son-in-law and daughter; and the driver could easily have been in prison for multiple vehicular homicides.

Let me tell you more about this telephone pole.  It has been a cosmetic pain-in-the-backside to my son-in-law and daughter.  It sticks out like a sore thumb.  They have requisitioned the City of Rockwall multiple times to remove the pole without success.  It’s a nuisance!  They have spent a good deal of money fixing up this office building with one of the last big projects being a nice parking lot fashioned by a circular drive…really nice.  City of Rockwall, please remove the telephone pole!

H-O-W-E-V-E-R, this old, inactive telephone pole became a HUGE asset protecting five precious people and our daughter and son-in-law from a ton of financial liability.  What if the pole had been moved as a result of multiple requests!

The above is what happens to us often in our prayer life.  Every one of us have asked for something that if God had granted our request would have ended up in a disaster.

We ask him to remove people from our paths who constantly agitate the heck out of us, but he doesn’t.  Later, we discover that there was a character flaw within us not the so-called agitator. They helped us grow. 

We petition him for a different job or more work for our company; yet nothing has happened.  As life passes, we discover the emotional pain has caused us to learn to depend more on God teaching us to grow spiritually.

“God, please tell me why you have given me this stubborn, strong willed child who grates on me daily.  Please sort them out!”  Years later, you observe this child has become an adult who stands strong for what they believe in and full of Godly character.  It wasn’t easy but now it is totally worth it.

Matthew 6:33 says it well, “Seek (literally keep on seeking) first the kingdom of God and all these other things will be added to you.”

1 Peter 5:6&7 is clear and healing, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. ⁷ Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”

1 Thessalonians 5:18 is a lesson for us to learn daily, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus”.

Thank God for the telephone poles in our lives!