Following a Hearse

(Started this one Friday…finishing touches Saturday morning…)

I had an interesting moment on my way to teach at the jail this morning. I had just left our building in a bit of a state due to a run in with the copy machine. It only wants to act up when I don’t have time for such kind of nonsense. I felt icky. I had choked on a cough drop in the night and the resulting coughing was running late. Right then the morning was great big “grrrrr and hrumph.”

So I head out of town on the hilly bendy two lane state route and of course the inevitable happens: I am at the tail end of a line of cars that has no place special to be—except in front of me. I cranked the music and settled in for the ride. It wasn’t too long in to my settled state when I realized that several cars had peeled off and there were only two vehicles in front of me.

Even with this shortened line in front of me, I was not going to be able to pass (legally or safely). So I set my eyes on the lead car and started to ask myself why this guy had to be in front of me going so slow when I needed to be somewhere NOW! That’s when I really focused on the lead vehicle and the little light came on in my head. The lead car was a hearse. A hearse. No wonder it appeared to be in no hurry. Dead people don’t have to be any place special at any certain time.

Now once I was able to get past my “now don’t that beat all” thinking, I began to think about the absurdity of racing a hearse. I had just written journal prompts on a passage from Ecclesiastes for church and the words were coming to haunt me—as were some of the words I mumbled at the copy machine, but that’s a different issue, sort of. In Ecclesiastes 9, the writer says this:
Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle
to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent nor favor to the skillful; but time and chance happen to them all.

Just prior to that verse he urges the reader to live to the fullest because in Sheol (the place of the dead) there is no work, or thought, or knowledge, or wisdom. The writer encourages the reader by reminding them that they need to live now. God has blessed them to live now. And with that in mind, I need to be sure that I’m not just rushing here and there, staying busy just to be busy.
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So now it’s Saturday morning. There will be no racing today. I’m going to go workout in a bit. I’ve been sitting with Asher since Mommio had gone to workout. He’s got a nasty cold so he woke up a bit crusty and barky. He wants to cuddle when he first wakes up---that such a hardship. (insert a knowing Mema smile)
Nelson is working. Two weeks ago they announced that there would be little to no more overtime and no more Saturdays. He consistently goes in at 5AM for over time and has worked the past two Saturdays. Extra blessings for sure! He was going to start a class at the nearby community college but needed to get a pre-req in first. He was a bit (big bit) disappointed. So it was a nice boost when they had him set up a machine—and it ran well! He just seems to be enjoying this work so much.

Well, that’s all for now…have a rest-filled day.