Back in 1995 I began my career with the United States Postal Service. Yep, I was a government employee! I worked for the postal service 17 years, as a Letter Carrier, Customer Service Supervisor, and a Station Manager. It was a great job, for the most part. I am thankful for the experience I gained, the people I met and worked with, and for the friendships that developed through the years.
As a “mailman”, I had to take driver’s classroom training, safety training, and actual hands-on training with their right-hand drive vehicles, the LLV (Long Life Vehicle).
I can still hear old Bob the Trainer telling us the route we were supposed to drive for vehicle orientation. Bob the Trainer would explain in a manner totally unlike any other trainer I’d ever had. Bob had been training new drivers for years, had worked for the USPS for at least 75 years (just guessing), and had quite a personality.
I learned real quick like NOT to bring up politics or religion to Bob the Trainer. He would tend to get a little heated in discussing such things, and then would forget all about the training. Oh well, most people have at least one fault or another.
The BIGGEST, most important thing Bob taught me was to “look both ways, more than once. Look to the left, right, and at least once more to the left. Bob your head back and forth several times”; if he said it once I know he said it at least a hundred times!
That tip from Bob the Trainer has kept me from an accident more times than I can count.
“Look both ways, more than once; left, right, and back to the left. Bob your head, back and forth…”
I remembered old Bob the Trainer today, thinking about the thing a lot of folks don’t like to think about. Eternity. Yep, thinking about eternity made me think of Bob the Trainer.
He came to my mind, not because of anything “religious” he might have said. No, that’s not the reason.
I thought of him because of that great tip he taught me. You know, the “look both ways, more than once; left, right, and back to the left. Bob your head, back and forth…” tip he was famous for.
Eternity. Look both ways. So true.
See, there’re only two directions one can go as they cross the intersection that separates this life from the next. There IS a next life; no one has a choice about that.
“And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment…” (Hebrews 9:27 ESV)
But we must choose between Heaven or Hell, Life or Death, Forgiveness or Eternal Damnation.
Look around, to the left, then to the right. Decide what there is to lose, and what there is to gain. But look carefully, because your choice will matter. And should you decide NOT to choose; well, the default destination is not the choice I’d make.
God sent His Son to give us a choice, a choice worth making. He who decides on the Lordship of Jesus will not see death (spiritual) or walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
So, take a tip from old Bob the Trainer. “Look both ways, more than once; left, right, and back to the left. Bob your head, back and forth…”
And before you pull into the “intersection”, make certain you’ve chosen LIFE!
Jan Grace 