Wandering with Reckless Abandon

So tonight I sold my second car of the month… it was a 2005 Ford Escape. I didn’t make much money off of it, because in order to make the sale we dropped about $3,000 off the price, but what I will make in the long run looks like I will be better off because of it.

My customers tonight were genuine fans of mine… they took a stack of my business cards last night when they left and were giving them out to all their friends. When they returned this evening they found out the vehicle that they wanted was going to have too high of a payment, so we sold them a “High Quality, low mileage pre-owned vehicle” at a price that they could afford. They seemed to be quite pleased, and hopefully they will send business my way…

What ended up blowing my mind tonight was that ten minutes after they drove off our lot I got a phone call from them saying that they had been in an accident.

Fortunately it wasn’t a bad accident… they will need a new bumper (the other car, however… not so good for them), and neither of them were hurt…

ten minutes.

ten.

I remember a few years ago my friend Tally and I were driving on I-85 in Atlanta on our way to Panama City Beach for one of our retreats. While we were on the connector, just past the Grady curve we saw a state patrolman walking up to a vehicle to write a ticket (or whatever GSP guys do). Ten minutes later, and further down the road we heard on the radio that a state patrolman had been struck by a vehicle and killed.

ten minutes.

ten.

It always amazes me how finite our time on earth is.
It always amazes me how complacent we can be.

Bill Hybels frequently talks about having a “Holy Discontent”. Being thankful with where God has us, but having a hunger for more… In a finite world, living finite lives, I look at the next ten minutes and wonder what will happen, and what can happen… I long to live with a holy discontent… refusing to be satisfied with what is, and longing for what can be… enjoying where I am, yet longing for more…

So here is to the next ten minutes, and then some… may we continue our headlong pursuit of our calling until the finite ends and the infinite begins…