The Steps of a Righteous Man

A few years ago, I was coming back home from having visited in FT. Worth Texas. Not only had I lived in the Ft Worth area for years. I had been a police officer there and knew the streets of that area like the back of my hand.

I was driving Loop 820 and needed to exit on to I 35N. It was freezing cold and the highways were icing over. I was trying to get out of the area before it got worse, weather wise. Somehow, I missed the exit that I needed to go on. I was so exasperated with myself, because if you have ever driven in that area, you know you can’t just exit and turn around, you have to go miles down the road before you can turn around.

I was ticked because I knew which lane I should have been in to exit and just hadn’t paid attention to be where I needed to be in order to do so.

After several minutes, and miles down the highway, I exited off the Loop and made my way, by a different route, back onto I 35N.

That little mistake had put me at least a half hour behind schedule.

Some eight hours later I arrived home. As I was watching the news that night, I saw a horrific sight. At the approximate time, I’m talking about within a few minutes, and just north of where I missed my exit, an 18-wheeler had lost control on the ice. He had overturned and going sideways plowed into numerous cars. This blocked the highway and as I watched the replay of the accident on the news I watched several cars plow into one another as they were unable to stop because of the ice. The 18-wheeler exploded and several were trapped in their vehicles, 4 people died on the scene and several more died later at the hospital of their injuries

I began to cry as I realized had I not missed my exit that I would have been right in the middle of that pile up.

I was reminded of Psalms 37:23 “The steps of a righteous man are ordered by the Lord.”

And Proverbs 16:9 “ A man’s heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.”

We often get frustrated because something comes up that make us late. Or we make a wrong turn, or we momentarily get delayed or turned around. When this happens we need to step back and remember that if we belong to the Lord, He guides our steps.

Rather than grumbling and becoming frustrated at the wrong turns and delays, we need to recognize that it may very well be God way of protecting us from something that would have brought us harm. In all things give thanks for this is the will of the Lord.

Lesson Learned: He is a sovereign God and His eyes are always on us. He sees what we cannot see, and He is always guiding our paths and steps. As such we need to recognize that there may be a reason or purpose to the things that happen in our lives that we don’t understand.

Rita Sanders