Whiplash

I woke up yesterday with a stiff neck and a mild headache. My husband was in an automobile accident, but I had whiplash!

No, I wasn't with him when a car cut across his path without looking. I was suffering from the jolt of an unexpected slice of life careening across my path. In the larger scale of life's journey, where recent illness had detoured and delayed our plans, we thought we were again traveling smoothly. Even in the short run of a day trip, I was on the road to success. Following an itinerary that had been mapped out since the night before, I was almost home (literally as well as figuratively).

The phone call alerting me to the accident transported me into high efficiency mode. Shut down computer. Drive husband to the doctor. Begin discussing immediately the logistics of a the days when we would be sharing a car. Express genuine thanksgiving there were no serious injuries. I felt great, all things considered. In retrospect I was in shock.

The day after the accident, I was shaken up. I felt bruised by life. In the aftermath, I was tense and exceptionally cautious. But even whiplash won't keep me off the road to Kingdom adventure. This most recent setback reminds me of one of my favorite Scripture passages, "Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the field and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will exalt in the Lord. I will rejoice in the god of my salvation." Habakkuk 3:17-18

The unexpected happens. Even the unpleasant. For a moment we respond to the impact. But no real damage has taken place. The One who cannot be shaken still stands.