The 911 call came in... a domestic violence call. The officer pulled up to the house just as a little red car quickly pulled out. The officer followed and it was soon apparent that the car was fleeing, so the officer gave chase. Out through the North side of town they sped, through the winding rural roads and through the local State Park. They exited the park at high speeds right onto the road where it would all end...the road I live on. My road. For twelve minutes it was all a fun car chase.

They exited the park and came out onto a straight away. The little red car gathered speed as it raced toward the state highway with the police car in pursuit. It flew across the highway without stopping at the stop sign. The people in the red pickup truck never saw what hit them...in fact they never saw anything again on this earth.

The wreckage was horrific...the Pickup split in two pieces. The little red car? All that was left was red vehicle debris; truck and car all mingled into a mangled mess. Four lives ended instantly that day. So many more lives were forever changed: The families and coworkers of the dead. The woman who made that original 911 call. The witnesses to the crash and those that came to rescue the unrescuable. Those that came upon the wreckage realizing...it could have been them if the timing had been just a few minutes later. The officer who himself was devastated by what happened. He had followed policy but had he done the right thing?

Four small town communities all agonized over the senselessness of it all: the town nearest where the wreck occured, the town where the 911 call originated (my town), the town where the people in the truck were employeed (heading back to work after a job), the town where the young men in the red car lived (the driver had several outstanding traffic violations).

The big city sent up its' news reporter'd to add to the controversy and hurt. The police cruiser's video cam recorded it all and the crash was seen by all on the local news and on the internet.

There is lots of anger, lots of fingerpointing, lots of guilt, lots of pain. There is sorrow, there is remorse, there is blame, there is fear. There are so many questions... so many "whys?" that can't be answered by anyone.

It is definitely a wake up call in so many ways. There are people that blame God when bad stuff happens and there are those who turn to God in the same circumstance. There are lots of people that think that this kind of thing is God's plan but I know God let's us all make choices...even bad ones. I know his plan for us can be messed up by bad choices, even the bad choices of other people.

Yes, he could intervene on our behalf and prevent the bad stuff. I know that he does this sometimes and sometimes he doesn't. I believe that God knows better than we do about what is best. I don't know why that is. Sometimes that is hard to take, though.

I also know that God makes something good out of every bad thing, but we might be in too deeply into our pain to see it. It may not be possible to be seen from where we are. The benefit may be somewhere else to someone else. We have to trust.

Only one sports team can win the game but both believe they should win. The loser can say "I should have won" and be bitter and blame the coach or the ref or the sun in his eyes or the wind or the injuries or they can learn from the loss and move on and work harder and be better and be stronger. The next time they can win even with the sun in their eyes and the wind in their face and a bad call by the ref.

We hate wake up calls but we need them. It takes us off of automatic, at least for awhile. It stops us taking life for granted. It makes us value our time here and love better and live better and do more good. We need wake up calls. Don't hit that snooze button. Wake up!
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James 4:14-17
You don't even know what your life tomorrow will be! You are like a puff of smoke, which appears for a moment and then disappears. What you should say is this: "If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that." But now you are proud, and you boast; all such boasting is wrong. So then, if we do not do the good we know we should do, we are guilty of sin.