Rumble Strips and Road Rage

I have several pet peeves when I am on the road in my car. I am a borderline “Road Rage” driver and don’t tolerate other inconsiderate drivers very well. After all, I have a right. I made an “A+” in drivers ed and scored a 100 on my written test. I am driving school royalty, right? Not really. I’m not that bad.

It’s just that other people need to stay out of my way when I’m trying to get somewhere. Go the speed limit or go home.

But one of the things that really annoys me is not about other drivers. It is those nerve-racking rumble strips that they put on the side of the road.

You know, those bumps that they carved into the asphalt to wake you up if you stray too far to the right out of your lane. They also let me know that I have drifted too far right when I text and drive (just kidding. I don’t do that….often). But texting while you drive is definitely a distraction and unsafe. In other words, when I get out of line driving, those bumps are there to let me know so I can straighten back up. They are there to protect me.

Psalm 139:23-24 says this:

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 Point out anything in me that offends you,
and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

There have been times in my life when I have gotten away from God and didn’t even realize it. I have drifted from him to the right. And, it is always because I have taken my focus off of Him. I have had other distractions to get in the way as well. Relationships. Social media. Finances.

But, when that happens, God lets me know. He has his own “rumble strip” to let me know that I have drifted right and am out of line. And when He does, I usually want to correct it. If I don’t listen to Him and do what I want anyway, I am headed toward eventual danger. I might not see it, but it is there.

This prayer in those verses keeps me from danger. “Father, search me and test me. Show me where I have let you down. I don’t want to disappoint you. Show me the way you want me to go. I want to follow the path you have planned for my life. Amen”

The Downy Ball is Amazing

So, I just discovered something that has been around a while. It might not seem much to you, but it is remarkable to me.

It’s called the Downy Ball.                                               All this time, I have been doing my laundry in a washing machine (or in this part of Oklahoma, its called a “warsher”) which does not have the little tray to pour your fabric softener in. I either poured the fabric softener in when I started the machine or had to wait until the rinse cycle started. I normally forget when its time for that. Basically, I was wasting fabric softener.

As I was talking to a friend today, I was told that I could use a little device called a fabric softener ball. “A what?”, I said. It seems that most women use these for the very same reason I needed one. My washer does not have one of those trays to pour the softener in before I was my clothes. She said that you just pour the softener into the ball, close it, and throw it into the washer. When it is time for the rinse cycle, the ball releases the fabric softener into the water.

I began to wonder how it did that. Now, if you know me, you know that I won’t just trust when someone says that it just magically releases the softener at the right time. I want to know HOW it releases it at the right time. I know that there isn’t some amphibious gremlin inside of that little ball that opens it when its time. Everyone knows that gremlins don’t like water.

So, being the curious person, I am, I asked my best friend, Google, how it worked. He did not disappoint me.

I’ll try to translate the science part as best as I can. But, for the geeky part, the Downy Ball uses Newton’s first law of motion, which is…”An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force”

Now, in simpler words….Once the ball is filled with fabric softener, you pull the cap which seals the hole where you poured the softener in. Now the ball will float when there is water, and rest on the bottom when there is not. The softener stays sealed inside.

Once the wash cycle is finished and the spin cycle begins, the ball is forced against the side of the washer tub. There is a weight attached to the lid on the inside. The force of the washer spinning causes that weight to be pulled toward the edge of the washer and pops the lid open. After the spin cycle is through, the ball falls to the bottom, the softener spills out and as the rinse cycle begins, the rinse water also fills the ball and mixes the softener with the water. Boom. Amazing. The best part is that it is less than $3!

Why didn’t I think of that?

You know, God’s timing is a lot like the Downy Ball. Sometimes it is hard to understand how it works, but it always does. And, it is always at the perfect time. Never early. Never late.

But unlike the Downy Ball, I tend to want to hurry up God’s timing when I want something to happen in my life. I want to open the washer lid and take the ball out and open it to pour it in before its ready. The only thing about doing it that way is that I would just waste the softener. It wouldn’t soften the clothes because it is supposed to do that during the rinse cycle. That is why you just throw it in the washer and forget about it. It will do its job.

It is the same way I have tried to hurry things in my life and ended up wasting chances or ruining what could have been really good if I had just trusted God.

God has a perfect plan for your life. Let him seal it up until it is time to open it and release the blessings that you have coming.