Freedom to Speak

Yesterday my wife called to let me know we had a water leak at our house. After calling a plumbing friend, we discovered our hot water heater was leaking which was causing a number of different issues underneath the house. We didn't figure this out on our own, but were helped by a friendly meter reader from the water department. When he was checking the meter for our monthly bill he noticed our usage was much higher than normal and came to the door to let us know. Without this assistance there would have been more damage and greater potential problems.

We don't always notice when things are going wrong in our lives. Sometimes we are too close to the problem to notice and fail to look in places where there are issues. Giving someone the freedom to speak truth into our lives can help us identify these troubles and hopefully bring about correction before they get too big.

Who do you trust to gently approach you when there's trouble you may not see? Giving someone this freedom can help head off potential pitfalls before they derail us completely.

Downpour

I grew up in Florida and it was simply understood that every summer afternoon we would have a thunderstorm that would send you scurrying inside. It would last for 30 to 60 minutes and then the sun would come back out and you could go venture out again into the 200% humidity.

I remember one nasty storm in particular. I was driving towards our local mall and the rain seemed to collapse on me out of nowhere. I was trying to see the road, but the deluge was so intense that my windshield wipers couldn't keep up with it. I literally could not see the end of the hood of my car and since I didn't have air conditioning my windows quickly fogged over. While I did not always make the smartest of decisions as a young man, in this instance I chose to pull over and wait for the downpour to abate before continuing. 

Sometimes it seems like this in our life as well. We are rolling along and then it feels like everything is falling down around us. Our vision becomes obscured, we are unable to process what is next, and we become afraid of what could be a potentially catastrophic collision. Even though the general consensus might be to forge ahead and push through the disturbance this might not necessarily be the best advice. There is often wisdom in pulling over to the side of road and resting as God clears the storm around you and gives you the vision to see what is next.