Life full of bug splatter

Smack...Splatter...Splat... I hadn't seen so many bugs on the front bumper of my car since my first experience with the love bug epidemic that hits Florida every year. Don't ever travel far and fast with a white car - it's nearly impossible to wash all the dead bugs off. I hand-washed my new white car with a rag and mild soap, attempting to recover the front end from the insect cemetery it had become. Kevin and I have just returned from a 2500-mile excursion through the northeast. Along the way, we managed to collect every species of insect imaginable. My car became an entomologist’s laboratory, a morbid collection of grayish matter and paper-thin wings. With my nose wrinkled and some warm sudsy water, I patiently scrubbed most of the bug particles from the front bumper, the hood, the windshield, and the side mirrors of my car.

I had been fussing under my breath, not enjoying my task, when a thought popped in my head. During my younger years, I had traveled on the fast lane, careening through life at high speeds, oblivious to the small obstacles that collided and splattered, leaving little marks here and there. It’s nothing, insignificant, that’s not going to matter later, or so I reasoned with the bad choices I made. But when life came to a standstill and I was left to assess the reason for my existence, the outcome from my collection of mistakes was disturbing. The worst damage was mental and emotional, not so much physical. I turned to God, the "Ultimate Carwash”, and He sat there, with a rag soaked in His blood, and lovingly washed away the debris from the mess I called my life. Not everything is back to being brand-spanking new, fresh from the factory, new-car-smell-kind of good. There are consequences to certain actions that we will always have to deal with. The good news is that God is here to help us deal with the consequences – and He empowers us with what I call measures: measures of faith, of love, of strength, of power – fueled by His Word through prayer, study, and daily communication.

I fall short so many times, running on empty, knowing what I have to do, how I need to connect, but being blatantly stubborn and lazy. Yet through simple tasks such as washing my car, God still tries to reach me, telling me how He has saved me and that He wants to empower me to live my life to the fullest.