June 14

It is 9:00 p.m., Saturday night, June 14. I am sitting at the Pilot truckstop in Muscogee, Oklahoma. I have been sitting here for 24 hours. I will continue to sit here until about 11:00 a.m. before pulling up stakes and heading south.

Why am I sitting? In the trucking business there are "hiccups". Someone at headquarters received an order for three truckloads of potassium hydroxide to load Friday in southwest Iowa and deliver Monday 100 miles north of Houston. I "happened" to be in the St. Louis area, close enough to head to Iowa for loading, and we do not keep many drivers in the West central region. But the mileage from load point to delivery point is only 700+ miles, I had nearly three days to deliver, and that means sitting. Sometimes you can relay the load for a local driver to deliver, but this load is not appropriate for relay for several reasons, none of which need be explained right now.

The company takes some of the pain out of sitting by paying layover pay, but generally you make better money by moving. It is an old axiom in the trucking industry that you only make money when the wheels are turning. In fact, I COULD start driving now, arrive at the customer by about 04:00 a.m. (Sunday morning), and qualify for a second day's layover pay (24 hour increments of sitting in one place), but I am leary of that. The best description of my experiences driving after midnight would be "foolhardy in the extreme" (rumble strips "felt" on the shoulder, ice water splashed on the face, slapping myself to stay awake, high risk to me and to the motoring public with 78,000 lbs of hazardous liquid freight and steel rolling down the highway). Besides that, the psalmist tells me that God owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalm 50:10). If my heavenly Father wants me to undertake something really, really risky and seemingly stupid for the sake of $90.00 in layover pay He is going to have to give me some very express leading. Otherwise, I think He is quite capable of providing the money that I need in some other fashion. I don't think God has been hurt in the least by rising fuel prices. I love the vision of Isaiah 6, given in the year that King Uzziah died (a time of crisis, the death of a good king) - God was still on the throne. He is STILL on the throne. He will STILL be on the throne if and when America breathes its death rattle.

I mentioned that I "happened" to be in the St. Louis area. I do not believe in luck. You will find very few references to luck (or chance) in the scriptures. Luck certainly is not the ruling principle for the believer. Psalm 37:23 states that: "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way. (None of us are good men apart from the shed bled of Christ, but that is another story). One of my favorite passages on this subject is in the book of Ruth. In chapter two, Ruth, the Moabite widow (God is so good! the Moabites were NOT a part of the covenant people! They did not deserve God's mercy! Neither did I!) is looking for a field in which to glean, with all that this implies. The Holy Spirit records that:

"And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers:
and her "hap" was to light on the part of the field belonging unto
Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimilech."

The Modern King James says "she happened". I love when Dr. McGee exposits this section in his five year radio program. If I remember correctly he has angels sitting on the edges of their chairs, breath held, while they watch to see what field Ruth settles in. But McGee tells us there is no suspense. God knew all along. God ordered Ruth's steps. Ruth HAD to come to the field of Boaz to meet this man who would be the great or great-great grandfather of David.

The same God who put Ruth in the field of Boaz has me sitting this evening in the Muscogee Pilot. He has not changed. He will not change. The scriptures tell us so.

I should like to report that I have met many drivers, distributed many tracts, and had "divine appointments" here at the Muscogee Pilot. I cannot. I have met Freddie, a new driver from Pennsylvania. (Freddie was surprised, he asked me why I came to speak with him - I told him because I am a Christian and look for the opportunity to speak with other drivers).

I have no internet access here. I will save this and try and upload it when I hit Texas tomorrow (even then, James writes in chapter four that we know not what will happen on the morrow, so if the Lord wills, I will upload this tomorrow in Texas).

(Oh, while in St. Louis Thursday, encountering still other seemingly meaningless delays, I again was at the tankwash when Szolz, our Hungarian driver, came in, and as God would have it, I had time to chat with him. I continue to witness to Szolz and to his wife when she calls to interpret and ask questions for Szolz about the job. When I last saw Szolz in New Jersey he shared that his grandparents had been believers and how they had started every morning with the reading of the Word. I cannot help but wonder if my contact with Szolz is not in answer to the long ago prayers of long dead grandparents half a world away. That would be cool! But see, the life of a Christian is anything but boring. We shall see what God has in store tomorrow. I don't know if there will be any divine appointments tomorrow. I only know that is best to be prepared for such appointments by spending some time in God's Word before beginning the day. That is all I have to know. God is in charge of the details. And that is really, really cool as well.