Tuesday, May 12, 2009


Pardon my making a big deal out of this, but as I was walking across campus today it began to downpour. And right over my head a huge clap of lightning accompanied a streak of blinding lightning. I hustled to my truck. And my first and instantaneous thought was, how quickly and instantaneously I can be called home. Death can be HERE and NOW. Even at my age we tend to think of death as distant, remote, and unreal. How very real it can become. The lightning, according to the rule of thumb I learned as a child--it is as far away from you in miles, as the number of seconds before you hear the thunder--flashed and the thunder slam-banged at the same second. I was scared. And I thought about it for the next ten minutes. Call me impressionable, but it drove me to prayer. I thanked the Lord that I was not struck. I asked His immediate forgiveness for all my sins of today. I imagined how I would write this up on this blog.

2 comments:

Yota said...

When General Jackson Earned his nickname "Stonewall" it was at the battle of Bull Run (1st Manassas).

He rode in front of his men on the firing line while recieving enemy fire. That took courage, but his courage was inspired by God. His faith was such that if fate would take him, it was God's will.

Another man I met by chance told me during the course of conversation he had three death certificates with his name on them. He had died 3 times, and the third time he remembered not wanting to return, but a voice said (twice) it was not time.
He lived...

Sandy said...

Luther in a similar situation said, "St. Anne, I'll become a monk." Thus began a search that led to the reformation. Thankfully, because we are justified in Christ we don't have to sweat whether we got every little thing confessed before we got zapped. :)