Lessons in Snow

Earlier this week I went to pick up my friend Joshua from the local airport. Before setting out I knew that this would be no ordinary drive. It was snowing, dark, and dangerous. Oh well, it can’t be that bad , I thought. So I set out around 21:30, eta 22:00. As soon as I gingerly came out of Andrews University campus, and turned onto Old US 31 I realised I may have bitten off more than I could chew. The white, slushy, slick snow taunted my little car. I don’t have snow tires, I don’t have rear wheel drive, and I don’t have much experience driving in snow. So there you have it, a perfect recipe for disaster.

Once I got onto the motorway going toward the airport, things started to get hairy. The snow ploughs evidently had come hours earlier because the road was white and not black, all I knew was that there were gaping ditches on either side of me. No lights, no other cars, no tarmac. So I begun to accelerate, 10miles, 15miles, 30miles and then my steering wheel started to take on the characteristics of the snow, ie, slippery and unstable. I don’t think I had even driven 5miles at this point, only another 15miles to go. GREAAAT!

Just when I thought I was getting the hang of it, the snow begun to slash down across my car. It was not the “winter wonderland, soft, in-the-lane-snow is glistening” type of snow. No sir! This snow had an agenda. My visibility dropped to about 15 meters, and it looked as if an unseen hand was pelting my car with handfuls of uncooked rice. I started to feel the blood drain from my face as I thought about the very real possibility of a crash. I also held my breath. I held my breath because it felt like if I breathed too hard the car might nose dive into a manic spin. I also did what any self respecting man would do at this point… I turned up my music and started to talk my self through the drive. “ok, you can do this, concentrate, don’t hold the wheel too tight, breath, breath, slow down, easy easy on the brakes…” When that n work I just screamed really loudly to easy the tension, lol.

Do you know what I desperately wanted at this point in time? A Truck. A big dirty 18 wheeler, with lights up the wazoo. Ordinarily I am not a fan of these behemoths of the road. They are slow, cumbersome, and take forever when they want to overtake, and mess up my cruise control. But that night, oh how I wished for a glorious 18 wheeler! It would be my cover. I would nestle behind it and it would

1. Shelter my car from the brunt storm – [PROTECTION]

2. Cut a safe path in the snow for me – [SAFETY]

3. Give light on the dark road – [GUIDANCE]

The truck never did come, but by GOD’s grace I made it safely to the airport. These thoughts came to me while I waited for Joshua. Being a community, whether it is a family, a small group, a club can offer you a level of the three things above. The best community that I have experienced though is not in a place but it is a person. During my drive it was the person that kept me, and I learnt an important lesson “Peace is not the absence of affliction, but the presence of God.”  ~Author Unknown

Psalm 121:5-8

Today’s New International Version (TNIV)