Arizona Highway 89A twists and turns through some very beautiful mountain scenery as it makes its way to the city of Sedona. My family and I traveled this highway several years ago on a trip to the Grand Canyon. Even our three young children were impressed with the scenery.
Huge sandstone formations rose on either side of the two-lane highway, displaying a constantly changing range of orange and red rock broken by blotches of green-gray vegetation. Our eyes were constantly shifting as one outstanding feature or another caught our attention.
But I, as the driver and captain of our "ship" had a constant struggle to stay in my lane on the sharp turns that twisted right, then left, than right again, then in a 180 degree narrow curve. I was thankful for power steering and good tires and brakes as I negotiated those hairpin turns, especially since many of them involved impressive drop offs had I not stayed on the road.
Life is like that. We are cruising along enjoying the scenery when right smack in front of us is a sharp turn that needs to be negotiated. Now. There is no time to think it through; turning now is the only option.
I was confronted with such a sharp turn on a Saturday night a few years ago. I had attended our monthly deacons’ meeting at church that morning, and prepared the first lesson of the new quarter for my Adult Bible Class for the next day. I had just enjoyed a good dinner my wife had cooked, and I, as an appreciative husband had just put the dishes in the dishwasher and pressed the buttons to make it go. I walked into our home office and sat down at the computer.
Suddenly my left hand went numb. It was like I had been given a shot of novacaine. Then I noticed that the numbness was also in my whole left arm, and my left leg and foot. I put my right hand to the left side of my face, and that was numb as well. The feeling lasted about five minutes and then my left side returned to normal.
Needless to say, I wound up in the hospital that night, something which I had not put on my schedule for the weekend. After numerous tests over the weekend and into Monday, the doctors said I had untreated hypertension and had experienced a mini-stroke that had resolved itself quickly. They said it was a warning. They put me on an aspirin regiment, and gave me two prescriptions to control my blood pressure and my heart rhythm, which they determined was too fast and sometimes irregular.
More than four years have passed since that sharp turn in the road of my life was successfully negotiated. But here’s the thing. On Arizona Highway 89A I was thankful for good tires and brakes to negotiate the sharp turns. On the highway of my life, I am thankful for faith in Jesus Christ and His plan for my life. When a sharp turn put me in the hospital, His strength and presence helped me negotiate a hairpin turn that certainly did include an impressive drop off.
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