Blindsided

So I was on my way back from grabbing lunch today when I bore witness to one of those things that you never expect to see in your life. PLEASE NOTE! IN NO WAY AM I MAKING LIGHT OF THIS EVENT! In fact, the event and the individual involved have been on my mind all day.

Near the intersection where I turn off of HW55 to go home, I happened to see a deer sprinting to get across the road about 120 yards in front of me, past the intersection. Traffic was heavy but slow, and the deer was going fast! Somehow it missed EVERYTHING in the first lane of traffic (I counted 3 SUV's and 2 Pickups that he could have hit in that lane depending on his timing). However, unfortunately, he was not so lucky getting across the second lane of traffic going the opposite way. The deer was not hit, rather, he did the hitting. Again out of all the possible reinforced cars, trucks and SUV's he could have collided with, he hit the worst possible target of choice: a man on a motorcycle!

Having just passed through the heavy traffic intersection the man wasn't going very fast, The deer however, was scared and running full speed! The poor gent never saw it coming. The deer hit him hard in the side, so hard that neither the man nor the deer got back up after the encounter. The man was flung from his bike and eventually found grass off the curb. He seemed ok (relative to the deer and the other possible outcomes), but I am sure will suffer some broken bones, bruises, and stitches. The poor guy was blindsided completely and never saw it coming!
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Now this may sound at first insensitive to use this as a correlation moment, but wait on it. (I really have been worried about the man that was hit!)

I've been working on a worship service about our spiritual journeys, and in particular remembering and encountering my own spiritual journey. Somehow I've fooled myself into thinking that along the many years of my life I have had some say in where my journey has led me. I mean, I know that there are times in each person's life that are out of their control (death of a loved one, tragic life-altering experience), but I never realized how we think we can take credit for the many other things that influence our journey. We may pick some things (what school to go to, what to major in, who to marry, where to live, when to have kids, etc...) But if we are honest with ourselves even those things are really outside of our control!

We can't determine when we are going to meet our future spouse. I don't personally think we can choose who we fall in love with. We can pick our school and major, but what happens once we get there is mostly up to chance (or divine providence if you prefer). Where we live is often determined by outside circumstances like our job, or for me, the fact that my wife has always lived in Apex and thus opportunities have kept us here up until this date.

So in looking at my journey, more specifically the forks in my road where the path branched off, I see that I've made choices, yes, but they all seem to be in reaction to whatever that fork was! This may not seem enlightening to anyone else, but I see 2 options that help explain where and who I am today!
1) we can chose to follow the path of uncertainty willingly, where God seems to break you further and further away from the "accepted" view of Christianity!
or
2) we can chose the path of false certainty where we decide not to change no matter what caused the fork, even if that means believing something in total contradiction to whatever experience caused the fork!

Whichever path one chooses, just like the experience that causes it, the only certainty is that, just like the man on the motorcycle who was out for a nice Sat. ride, sooner or later something in life is going to blindside you and once again you will be faced with the same choice! path 1 or path 2? The only problem with path 2 is that each time someone chooses it, it seems to separate them further and further from reality!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I want to go and see if the local news reports on the motorcyclist's condition, and praying that he's going to be ok!