Rumble Strip

The open road and smooth sailing, a road trip is one of life's greatest adventures. You set out fiil the car and you are on your way.  No traffic just you and the call of the road.  Somewhere along the way something grabs your attention and you veer towards the shoulder. You feel the tires rolling over what is designed to make you realize you are not where you need to be and you need to get back between the lines.  The rumble strip has woke you up. It did its job and you are now heading safely down the road.
    Life in general is a lot like that. We sail along smoothly all is good.  That's when it happens. We loose focus and we are suddenly on the shoulder.  Then we feel the rumble strip our wake up call.  Something that totally knocks you out of your complacency.  Something that makes you realize that life can change on a dime. The Rumble Strip comes in many forms.  Loss of a job, financial troubles, a death, terminal disease are just a few that come to mind. These will cause you to stop down and question your values, your dreams, your own mortality and the life you lived in general. They will make you ask yourself what is important? What is first in my life. Is it money, fame, family, career. It will make you question life's choices.  Sometimes God sees fit to allow us to experience one of life's rumble strip.  It's his way of pointing us in a direction where we need to make changes that not only benefit us but everyone around us.  I've experienced one or two in my lifetime. At the age of 17, I lost my oldest brother at the young age of 25.  That altered my thinking, being seventeen, I was imortal I have lots of time left.  That served to show me life is second by second with no guarantees.  The loss of my mother was another rumble strip. Not the death itself, which was hard. What came to me is all of the things we spend a lifetime accumulating is all in vain.  Yes it brings us joy at the time but you take none of it with you. My mom spent a lot of year accumulating Knick knacks. There were drawers full of things that would never be seen.  There was simply no room for them.  My divorce yet another rumble strip. While there was some good that came from my marriage, my three daughters, it caused me to step back and examine life's choices and determine I will never settle for less than what is best for me. 
    The truth is life is full of bumps in the road.  The rumble strip is not designed to bring you to a grinding halt. It only serves to allow you to make corrections to put you back where you need to be. On life's highway. Happy driving fellow drivers. Watch out for potholes but that's a blog for another day.