Get Off My Path…Please

Each day, for the past week, I’ve driven past the site of deadly crash on Camp Creek Road on the way to my house.

A 24-year-old man died right there by that tree, a tree now covered with flowers as his friends and family remember him.

Today my phone rings, the man leaves a message and asks me to call him. The man is the father of the young man who died in the car crash.

Come to find out I knew Brian. I used to go to a Bible Study with him. We even met for coffee fairly regularly for a while. I even baptized him in the river down below our house.

His father sounded so sad on the phone. Brian was an only son and now he is dead. His dad asked if I would come to Brian’s memorial next week. Of course I will be there. How could I not go? If my son died at age 24 I would want people who I took the time to call, to come and remember him.

I was talking with a friend about all the interesting and odd things that happen to me. Last week I’m in a crematorium with someone I know and this week I discover this connection to a death on my own street.

My friend said to me “odd and wonderful things happened a lot to Jesus too. Perhaps, Rick, he said, this is proof that you are walking closely to His will for your life.”

So I must remember in those moments when the Pharisees and people who tend to tow the line throw their steely darts my way, that I am not here to walk their way I am here to walk the way that God designed only for me. And let me tell you it is a very odd path indeed, and I love it.

(Most of the time)