I Have Been Blessed...

I Have Been Blessed…
Last Friday I was driving home from Camp LeJeune like I have done just about every other Friday for the last few months to spend the weekend at home and get away from the base. I stopped at the same Burger King I always stop at to grab some grub on the way back. As I was driving I heard a song on the radio and its title is the subject of my blog….”I Have Been Blessed.” I am horrible with singer’s names so I won’t even try to guess who it was, but the author of the song mentions all the little ways in life that she is blessed everyday, from the “kiss of the sun each morning” to “hearing my kids laugh down the hall.” She didn’t sing of anything that I would consider amazing or miraculous it was just life.
Little did I know hours later I would be nudged off the road, spin backwards, smash into a tree, and spin back around in the median of the interstate. It’s now been about 3 hours since that accident occurred. I’m sitting in a gas station waiting for my dad to come pick me and my car up. I have no idea what my insurance company will be willing to do as far as fixing the vehicle, although I do have full coverage. However, the slight impact from the other vehicle was on the back of the car, which is also the end that smashed into a tree so there was no clear evidence of another vehicle. Thankfully the officer noted that I was run off the road, but it’s up to the insurance company as to what they do with it.
As I was sitting here I was drawn back to the message of that song. I have been blessed. First of all the most obvious thing is that at this moment I am uninjured. Anytime your in a car accident that occurs at about 67 or so miles per hour, you hit a tree, and you can walk away… you get the point!...I was blessed that it was the rear end of the car that hit the tree and not my door or somewhere in front of me. I was blessed by the truck driver who stopped, gave me the number to highway patrol, and let me hang out in his truck to stay dry till the state trooper arrived. I was blessed that the trooper was willing to believe me and note that I was run off the road by another vehicle though no concrete evidence existed, and I am blessed that I have someone who can come get me, and tow my car home on his trailer so I can avoid an otherwise undoubtedly ridiculous towing bill.
But before that all occurred I was thinking, man I am blessed. Often times I’m asked if it bothers me that I’m out of college on active duty with the Marine Corps in the middle of my college career… Would it be nice to finish school? YES, and I will eventually. Does it bother me…NO. I am doing something I love, and that is being a Marine, serving my country. School will be there when I come home from this deployment. God has given me a strong body and strong mind able to do a lot physically and mentally. I am surrounded with a loving family and some incredible friends. I live in a free country where I can worship, write, and wish as I please. I am in a land where no government or agency sets the limit of my hopes and dreams. My hope is sure, my faith is certain. My future lies in the hands of the Creator of the Universe, my all loving, all knowing, all powerful Heavenly Father.
So after this weekend has a taken an unexpected turn of events (even into the median of an Interstate!) regardless of what happens to the car or from here, as I look at the sun, a fiery golden orb that lights and warms the entire globe, rise to its perch in the bright blue sky each morning, and descends to give way to the nightlight of the earth each evening I will observe the daily wonders of creation and the very awesome wonder of human life itself and all the sudden a little car accident or even something more serious pales in comparison to what I have been given. It just so easy to see that God has been amazingly good and gracious to me. He guides me and loves despite my wayward heart. It’s just so easy to see…I have been blessed.

God Bless You and May God bless America,

Joe