Hanging on by a Thread....

One of the things I do at work is troubleshoot problems. Most days, though it can be challenging, it's not too bad.

Today was not one of those days.

Everybody...I mean EVERYBODY...kept coming up to me starting conversations with the same sentence...."I have a problem I need to talk to you about..." And in grand escalation fashion, each and every problem seemed to be just a wee bit worse than the one preceding it. At about 3:00 I walked into my boss' office and informed her I was putting my application in at McDonalds, because I doubted french fries and chicken nuggets had to deal with anything as intense as verifying if system algorithms are accurate and should we be using processed dates or renewal dates and what about the calculation of violation removal... She told me to sit down and quit whining...she had a problem to talk to me about.

So I was sitting there trying to help decipher the latest dilemma, when I suddenly and inexplicably got THE flashback. This is not the first time this has happened...but it always amazes me when it does. It takes me back to when I was 11 or 12...

I was a tomboy as a kid and many times, what my Dad did, I did. So it wasn't surprising to find me up on a roof with a hammer in my hand acting like the master carpenter that I definitely was not. But this was where we were that day...helping a friend put a roof on his son's house. Things were going A-OK... for a while, anyway. And then it got real interesting. I took a step backward to pick up a hammer, which apparently was one step more than I should have taken....and walked right off the roof.

Now, the only thing underneath me was a concrete slab, which obviously was not all that inviting a place to land. The trouble was, it's not like I really had much time to assess the situation and aim for another spot. Granted, I was much smaller than then I am now, but it still doesn't take long for gravity to pull a little kid to the earth when nothing else is in the way. I was plunging to a disaster.

And then...suddenly....I stopped. Just stopped...looking eye level at sky, my feet dangling with nothing under them...and wondering what in the world was going on.

Instinctly, I looked up, and there I saw it....my hand clutched in a death grip around a thin little electrical wire that was swaying in the breeze...and saving me from nothing short of broken bones and bruises (or worse). Apparently on the way down I stretched my hand up in a subconscious plea for help from above...and by nothing more than the Grace of God, caught hold of this tiny little wire.

Wow...it still makes me shudder to think about it.

Dad quickly scrambled down the roof and brought the ladder over to get me down. I remember how he held me while I was shaking and a bit in shock. It felt good to have his arms around me, assuring me it was OK. A lot of bad could have come from that day....but a miraculous story emerged instead.

I'm sure we've all had things happen in life that we never really understand why they happened, or what they meant. I've had more than my share of them. For a while, this day belonged in that category. But as I've gotten older, I get those flashbacks. Usually they come right at a time when I'm ready to run screaming from life as I know it, and/or choke the next person that crosses my path. It's as if God is reminding me..."Hey - you've been in bad spots before. And I've always been there to keep you from crashing to the ground. It's gonna be OK, so just get your feet back on solid ground and snap out of it!"

Not a bad message to remember.

So, whenever the day seems a bit rough, just picture that little kid dangling in mid-air and remember that no matter how desperate the situation, or how impossible the solution, or how unstable the safety net seems, God's got in all under His control.

I'm thankful for the day I learned how to hang on to God's Grace by a thread...

And I'm betting that tomorrow...will be a better day. :)