My New Nemesis: FIRE HYDRANTS

One of the things I absolutely love about living in NYC is walking everywhere. I am being totally serious. Over the last year God has given Katie and I a real love for walking. When this first started in our lives we had no idea it was to prepare us for living in NYC, but in hind site we can see that just as God was preparing us in other ways, he was also preparing us for this. 

However, one of my biggest issues with walking in NYC are the fire hydrants. On more than one occasion I have been walking on a busy sidewalk, stepped out to pass someone and walked right into a fire hydrant. My problem is that I'm looking up and forward and not down. I have no clue that I'm about to walk into an immovable object that will drastically slow down my forward progress while leaving a tangible mark on my shin.  I have begin to call these marks 'shin dents', because they literally leave a dent on your shin when you walk into them.

My latest shin dent experience came this past Sunday. Our family was getting off a bus and I was hurrying to get out in front and cross the street. I was looking up for the cross walk sign and looking around for traffic and walked right into a fire hydrant so hard the I almost ended up face first on the ground. Needless to say Katie, PJ and Natalie expressed their overwhelming compassion for my through fits of laughter. While I was walking home, now with a considerable limp, God brought to mind a spiritual truth for me related to my latest 'shin dent'.

Those of you that know me well, are not surprised by this story. When ever I get focused on something I move forward and I move forward fast. If you have ever been to Disney with me you have experienced this first hand. But sometimes moving forward and moving fast causes us to overlook pitfalls and dangers that might be in our way. Sometimes in my life I can be too forward focused and and forget to do the little things that need to be done in the here and now. I do a great job of looking ahead and seeing what is next, but sometimes lose my focus on my immediate surroundings.

Hitting that fire hydrant caused me to walk a little slower, but it also caused to walk with others. It made me walk with my family and neighbors not in front of them. It made me walk behind people as a follower instead of being out front as the leader. Limping home that day, God challenged me to remember that fire hydrants are here for a reason. One they help to save people lives when a major disaster hits, but second they are their to slow people down like me who sometimes need a not so gentle reminder to slow down, enjoy the walk, enjoy the moment that God has you in, enjoy who you are walking with, enjoy the scenery around you and then look forward to see what He has for you next. Hopefully, I'm learning my lesson both physically and spiritually!