As much as I didn’t want to do it my budget told me I had to take the through-the-night delivery beginning Tuesday night. It was scheduled to depart near DFW Airport at midnight. I was to take some mail to Memphis Wednesday morning. I pulled away from the dock with the load at 1:30 am.
I made the delivery in good time but was now late for my scheduled pick up of a return load. When they were kind enough to fit me in it took them four hours. I collapsed in my motel room after that very long day.
To make to my delivery near Tyler, Texas I knew I needed to push through with as few stops as possible. I got to the distribution center about fifteen minutes after my appointment time. That meant I was still on schedule.
The computer the receiving clerk looked at told her an estimated time of 6-6.5 hours to unload. I informed my dispatch company and waited…and waited…and waited. Twelve hours later I pulled out and headed to yet another motel room two miles away.
The news channel in the truckers’ waiting room spent all day showing congressional folks talking at the FBI Director about some important stuff he just made a decision on.
I fell asleep oblivious to anything else occurring in the world.
When I checked Facebook Friday morning my heart sank.
“Not again…”
I was only two years old the last time a sniper made news in downtown Dallas. The world stopped until President John F. Kennedy’s body was laid to rest from what I’ve been told.
This time the target was police officers…as many as possible, apparently.
The TV in the motel lobby said five officers were killed. The injured rose from six to seven as I ate my waffle. Then two civilian injuries were reported. This was definitely deliberate and evil.
Message boards along I-30 showed what roads in downtown were closed off. It was now a crime scene with fatalities.
When I drove around downtown Dallas the buildings stood tall and strong and proud. Typical of any Texan.
I’ve lived in enough places to know that a city isn’t made up of buildings. People are the real heart of any city. Today Dallas’s heart is broken, again.
As I drove north electronic billboards on I-35E told me a vigil was planned in Thanksgiving Plaza at noon. That’s the Dallas I know and love.
Fifteen hours after a disaster and we’re coming together on our knees to God.
The prayer vigil was carried live by a local TV station. I saw most of it. Men and women from several religious backgrounds, political ideologies and ethnicities did their best to say what couldn’t be said. In each person’s way we cried for God to heal our land.
The final prayer was given in Jesus’s name. I hope that covered all of the prayers that went up because He is our only hope.
Many questions will be asked now. What, When and How will have the quickest resolutions.
Who is still being determined. One gunman was taken out with a robot bomb by police after a lengthy standoff. He said he acted alone. There were too many shots fired too quickly with too many police officers hit for anybody to believe that.
This hit too close to home for any stone to go unturned in this investigation. Stay tuned.
Why? That’s always the toughest question to answer. And the hardest to resolve.
When Hosea spoke to the nation of Israel before Jesus came to this planet as the Messiah he explained “they sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.” (Hosea 8:7)
That’s where we are today, my friends.
I went with a group from our church to help in disaster clean up after the tornado devastated Moore, Oklahoma a few years back. We ain’t seen nothin’, yet.
Our current President has publicly declared that America is a “post-Christian nation.” I sure hope he’s wrong about that.
Things have sure been leading up to that during my lifetime.
The Bible and public prayer have been removed from public schools. The Ten Commandments aren’t even permissible to display anymore.
Why are those in power so belligerent about these things? It’s because they want that power for themselves.
They refuse to believe God is the real wind beneath this great nation’s wings. They are wrong. There’s no doubt in my mind.
In the 70’s we were told to question authority by our teachers. That’s where the breakdown began.
People are not only questioning them now, they’re killing them for standing in their way.
This cancer has been developing far too long to go away on its own.
Tornadoes have a life cycle. They end rather quickly.
Hatred has been around since Cain killed Abel.
I’m afraid this disaster will occur again. Maybe not on this scale–I pray it doesn’t–but it will. The tension is too high in too many places.
Fortunately, there is a resolution to all of this madness. Unfortunately, too many people have a hatred for Jesus Christ to accept it.
In John 10:10 Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
The thief is gaining a strong foothold these days. Destruction is all around us.
Jesus has overcome the evil in this world by restoring our relationship with Creator God.
The Bible repeated describes this relationship as an adoption of Father God to us as His children.
The only way to sign that adoption paper is with the shed blood of Jesus Christ. That’s the sticking point in this mess.
Since Jesus has been so vehemently pushed out of our society our answer is too far away for too many people.
We’re told to tolerate anything, until it comes to Jesus and the Bible. Then a line is drawn.
That’s the line we must cross for a full resolution of this conflict.
I pray this event in Dallas is the turning point in this evil. I hope people see the futility in this action and look deep within as to why they feed their hatred to anyone else.
I hope Jesus gains attention as the answer to this problem and many others.
I’d love to see an end to this conflict in my lifetime.
In Jesus’s name it will.
I’ll see you later. Wade
