Blinded by the snow and other snow memories

     As I was driving to the office this morning I saw something that brought back a scary memory. I was driving on 321 and I glanced over to the lane beside of me and saw some snow fly off the top of a car and come crashing down against the windshield of the car behind it. It wasn't a big amount but I am sure it was enough to give the driver a scare. Now the memory it brought back to my mind had a lot more snow in it. I was driving down a two lane road a day or two after a heavy snow. It was the first day the roads were not covered in snow and ice so it was the first time many people ventured out. I was following a minivan with enough snow on top of it to let you know it was on its maiden voyage out. As we drove down the road a few small lumps of snow came flying off so I backed off some. A few minutes later I assume the minivan driver figured out the roads were not as icy as once thought because they went from driving Miss. Daisy to driving the last lap at the Daytona 500 in seconds. When they did all the snow on top of the minivan came flying of in one lump.
     I could see it coming but I couldn't avoid it. It covered my windshield with white danger. I quickly turned on the windshield wipers but in the beginning they were of no help. I was slowing down as quickly as I could which the car behind me didn't notice at first. When they finally did they were hitting their brakes even harder than I was. After what seemed like an hour but was in reality seconds I was able to see. Which was a good thing because I had drifted into the other lane and was heading toward a rapidly oncoming car. I jerked my car back into my lane causing my car to fishtail for a few moments. I finally regained control of my car and begin praying to thank God for keeping me and everyone around safe.
     We don't always make smart choices when it comes to snow. When I was in High School not long after getting my license I was wanting to go to a friend's house after church one Sunday night to watch a wrestling PPV. They were calling for snow and my parents advised me not to go which made me want to go that much more. It began to snow on my way there but I didn't turn around. My dad must of called a dozen times while I was there giving me weather reports and traffic reports. I didn't listen. When it was over I jumped in my car and off I went. I remember thinking all that talk about how hard it was to drive in snow was a joke because I was doing just fine. I kept getting a little faster as I went. Then I came to a bridge on the Henry River Road. I knew I should slow down a lot but I only slowed down a little because I was way over confident. As I was crossing the bridge I noticed something was passing me. It was the backend of my Dodge Omni. It did that few times until I got to the other end of the bridge. Lesson learned.
     One thing that is even harder than driving in the snow is trying to figure out if it is safe enough to

have church or not. Sometimes it is obvious what the choice should be and I like those times. You wake up and there is a foot of snow on the roads and more coming down then the decision is easy. You start frying some bacon and watch the snow fall. Days like yesterday are not so easy. Not expecting much if any accumulation on Friday but seeing the inch total rise as the day went on made me begin to wonder about Sunday. Waking up Saturday to see more falling made me begin to pray for an answer. As the temperatures remained low and the sun stayed away I begin to confer with others and pray more. I begin to receive peace about canceling the services as I heard on the radio about the wet frozen roads that were to be expected on Sunday morning.
     Now, what made this decision hard was all the things going on at the church. There was some final practices for Christmas programs, the collection of Angel Tree Gifts, a Finance Team meeting and part two of my three part Christmas series. I battled the decision more because I kept saying we needed to do these things. Then in my mind I remembered stories that happened at other churches of an elderly person falling and breaking hips or other body parts. So I based the decision completely on the peace God gave me on an answer not on what I felt the answer should be. So I made the call to cancel services.
     I wake up Sunday morning to the sun shinning through our window. I look outside and the snow is

quickly disappearing. Most of the day I was mad at myself for my decision. We drove out for lunch and as I looked at the dry roads I couldn't believe I made the decision to cancel services. Last night I was praying and I told God I was sorry for canceling services when it looked like we could have them. I felt God speak as He asked me a question, "Who told you to cancel services?" I told Him nobody, I felt led by Him to cancel. Then He said, "Then you made the right decision." I asked, "Why?" In my eyes there seemed to be no reason for that decision. God said, "Do you have to know everything I know to trust Me?  Or do you have the faith that you preach that others should have." I rolled over and went to sleep because as always God was right. We don't have to know God's reasons we just have to know God enough to have faith in Him. I didn't even and still haven't tried to speculate what God's reasons was. I am just going to rely on faith. You should too. I am not going to say it is easy but I am going to say it is worth it. I had a great night's sleep thanks to my faith in God,. How about you?

Parting Thought: Research has found that the shelf life of a fruit cake is longer than the life of the shelf.