Noticing The Little Things

Well last week was an adventure as I traveled five states in our effort to sell product from our company.  It should have been a normal week as I left the house about 4:00 a.m. on my way to Little Rock, AR for a meeting. 

About 9:30 a.m. traveling towards Memphis, the dreaded “check gauges” light came on and the voltage meter went to zero.  I called Lynnette for the closest parts store to see where the closest parts store might be.  If the truck is not charging, eventually the vehicle dies alongside the road.  Friends had been praying for my journey as I began praying harder for the Lord to get me somewhere to get the problem fixed.  With the help of my wonderful bride at home, I pulled into the town of Brownsville, TN and found a parts store. 

I turned off the truck and they came out to check the battery and alternator.  When I started it up it was fine with no light and everything was charging.  We left the truck running for a couple of minutes with the testing gauges attached and it did it again.  The “check gauges“ light came on and the man said the voltage regulator was going bad.  As would have it that store did not have the part, so they called their competitor and found an alternator.  I thanked the man at both parts stores and asked for his help to locate a mechanic.  They called around and found a man who was really busy but said to bring the truck to him.  He quickly changed out the alternator and charged me very little for his time.   

Praising God, I was on my way.  I kept the first meeting and it went excitingly well.  Then off to Wal-Mart Corporate.  

Traveling the highway I noticed dark clouds behind me and getting darker with a lot of lightening.  As I checked into the hotel in Bentonville, AR the skies opened and it began to rain.  And did it rain!  The next morning I was told that it rained 6 inches in four hours and was flooding all the roads.  Once again the meeting went well and we are to return within the next few weeks to close the deal.

Now off to Oklahoma City.  Upon arriving, I noticed the clouds in the west starting to build and get black.  Upon arrival at Hobby Lobby the receptionist told me that they were sending everyone home because they were under a tornado warning.  After a brief meeting I headed out to Dallas.  

Once again the dark clouds were moving in and just south of Oklahoma City I could see on my right that tornados were forming (the ones that hit Canadian, Oklahoma).  I missed being in the middle of them by 30 minutes.  With the storms in my rear view mirror, I stopped in Denton, Texas for the evening.  

Within fifteen minutes of my arrival the warning sirens went off and naturally several of the guests went outside to watch.  To our right we saw the tornado form (the one in the picture above).   Minutes later we saw another one forming on our left, which hit about 8 miles south of our location.

The meetings went well the next day and I headed toward Memphis on my journey back.  Passing through Little Rock I once again saw the clouds forming for a major storm.  As I came towards Forest City, AR it began to hail.  Now I had been in hail stores for the previous two days, so I figured that I needed to get ahead of the storm.    A Fed-Ex tractor trailer passed me and so I got right behind the truck and soon we came out of the storm.  In my rear view mirror, I saw a funnel moving over the highway I just had passed.

When I got to Memphis and headed to my room, the electric went off just as I was getting into the elevator.   Then sirens went off again and sure enough another tornado was bearing down on Memphis.  

Upon seeing the devastation from each place I had been, I prayed thanksgiving for the Lord watching over this trip.  He literally kept me one step ahead of danger.   In reflection, people had only prayed for safe journeys and success in my meetings.  Yet it was the little things that proved that the Lord was truly watching over me.   

The delay with the truck repair was frustrating, but I could have been in an accident if I had been headstrong and moved on, the timing of being just in front of storms gives me blog thoughts for the future and how the Lord is REALLY watching out for each of us.  

The moral to this adventure is to never take for granted the power of prayer warriors and to know that the Lord takes care of the little things.  Are you ready to let Him take care of the little things today?