“There are no accidents. God’s just trying to remain anonymous.”

Turn at my rebuke; Surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you. (Proverbs 1:23)

How do you recognize when God is sounding His wake-up alarm?
Is he warning you in your marriage? With your children? Through your work? About your routine?
If so, how will you respond? And when?

I apologize for not sending any devotionals for the past few days. I planned to send one out in the evening on April 23, but two serious bicycle accidents while riding with the biking club in Madison County changed my plans. In both accidents I was going over 20 mph before crashing.

In the first accident around 6:40 PM, someone riding behind me said something about a car coming. His reaction startled me. I suspect I looked up and instinctively went to the right. In any event, my front tire barely went off the paved road and when I tried to come back onto it, my bike veered out of control, dumping me hard onto my right side on the paved gravel road. My friend behind also crashed as a result.

After taking about 5 minutes to clean myself up and put my chain back on the bike, I proceeded to bike again. Within a mile or so, a few people were passing me on the left when one of them clipped the back tire of another rider. Both riders crashed with the second rider falling down right in front of my bike.

As a result, I flew over my handle bars. I suspect I hit my head and left shoulder because my helmet was cracked and my left shoulder was very sore and scraped. If it was not for the helmet, I would have had a serious head injury. I have no broken bones, except 1-2 broken ribs on the right. I have road rash on every extremity.

Yesterday, the first day after my accident, I felt like I had been run over by a Mack truck. Today I felt considerably better, although I still have lots of sore areas and oozing wounds. Getting out my devotionals has not been my highest priority.

Is God trying to teach me something through this? If so, what? In my spirit, I sense this is a warning from God. I believe things happen for a reason. Having two accidents within 10 minutes is extremely unusual. I think my last bicycle accident was 15-18 years ago, despite the fact that I bike regularly when the weather is decent.

It’s interesting that I ignored my gut feeling to ride my bike by myself instead of with the biking club because I felt tired. Not being well rested before riding made me less alert with a slower response time. It’s interesting that “Be Alert and Ready” was the title of my last devotional on April 21.

Will I be better about saying “No” to things I want to do when I feel tired in the future? Probably. Does God want to teach me a very important lesson about my daily and weekly routines? I suspect so.

Prayer Power
Heavenly Father, thank You for protecting me from permanent serious harm that could have easily resulted from my two bicycle accidents. Help me to understand the life lessons to be gleaned from these. Bless those who read this message to recognize when You are sending wake-up calls and to adjust their courses appropriately. Thank You Jesus. Amen.

Link of the Day
The Sovereignty Of God by Andrew Wommack

Blessings to recognize the hand of God in your own life and to respond appropriately!

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From: Robert Sims
Sent: Saturday, April 26, 2008 12:36 PM
To: Randy Peck
Subject: warning from God?

Hi Randy,

Bob Sims here. God will make it clear about what He says to us. I took a motorcycle course last year-still do not have a motorcycle but wanted to get oriented so I could use one in Africa someday. The training was rigorous in the course. It goes over all what you said, about the causes of most accidents. Whatever might slow our response times and judgments will increase dramatically the accident rate.

It went over the effects of alcohol, weariness, absent mindedness-mood in other words. I feel this is a good metaphor, perhaps a parable, for our lives. We were told in the course that whenever we were tired, stop. There is not any margin on a motorcycle to be absentminded. Like on a bike but much more so, calculating the angle of attack on a curve, the stopping distances for potential problems like you had, anticipating drivers and others to make mistakes and cross our path all require concentration moment by moment-all while shifting gears and working clutches and two sets of brakes while balancing.

I think that is part of it-we can live moment by moment with God and will not likely crash. Jesus was quoted Psalm 91 in Matt. 4 by satan. It was truth, but misapplied. Satan wanted Jesus, in my view, to see the world only in physical terms-save your body from death with the angels. However, I feel Ps. 91 is about guarding the heart. Reference to  Psalm 34, you find the same angels (angel of the Lord in some versions) healing and guarding and delivering hearts. That is what happened after the temptation, the angels gathered around Jesus and ministered to his human spirit. It was “tempting God” to jump the cliff because it was an attempt to move issues of the heart to just about the body-America’s pasttime now. 

This might sound convoluted but if you move through this you will see:
Psalm 51, for instance, expresses God’s heart on life:
15 O Lord, open my lips, And my mouth shall show forth Your praise.
16 For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise.
        
It was not the physical sacrifices He really wanted but for us to put our hearts in His hands so He could bring complete restoration.

The parable seems to be that if we have our minds on other things than what God thinks is important, we are headed for a Ps. 91 thing-we will stumble and our hearts will be broken, unless the heart is in the hands of the angels, not OUR hands. What is on OUR mind can kill us, but what is on God’s mind can save us.

This is a deep truth and I hope I have not written so little that it is not well stated. Nonetheless, one of the only ways we can do this is to live in a state of relaxation, or rest, so we can be aware of God’s thinking, and also we can be aware of the dangers crossing our path.

I am in the specialty tea business. The reason tea is the most popular beverage on earth is not just because it is really healthy, but because it has a substance in it, just about the only place in all of God’s apothecary, where L-theanine is  present in high concentrations naturally. It causes the brain to go into Alpha wave mode with just two cups-relaxed but alert. People all over the world drink it for this reason not being aware of L-theanine, but knowing they are relaxed and alert simultaneously, the brain activity we must have for physical or mental performance. Caffeine alone causes alertness with side effects we do not want, but this substance is unique and offsets the side effects.

I am not selling tea, here! I am using a long analogy to encourage you to rest and find rest where you can be alert but relaxed, listening to God but also ready to “perform” in the heart.

The bike trip is a metaphor of your life, in this way too: do not perform tired. Rest until you are in the zone. Trying to perform out of the “zone” with God is tantamount to taking the guardianship of our heart back from the angels and guarding it yourself. If the angels do not lift you up, you are guaranteed to “dash your foot against the stone”-a poetic device speaking of guaranteeing our hearts will be broken if we become the guardian.

I think also the analogy could be that the angels did lift you up both times. The roll gave you the terrible skin strawberries, but that was in lieu of NOT rolling and something breaks! Like your head or leg!

So, the motorcycle class ( and I have thousands of miles on a bike, too) teaches us not to ride with our minds or bodies in the wrong place. We need to rest when we need rest. Jesus said, “Wisdom is justified by her children.” Wisdom is walking tuned to God constantly. Habukkuk 3:16 and the surrounding passage shows us what God wants to accomplish-the we can actually rest in the day of trouble knowing God is using the shaking for His purposes.

Be encouraged,

Bob Sims

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