I'm Bent Over Backwards

One early morning, I was carelessly and speedily driving to my morning shift at WNRK Radio in Delaware. I stopped quickly on the side of the road to pick up the local paper from a coin-operated newspaper "rip-off" box. Pulling over to the opposite side of the road and frivolously jumping out of the van with two quarters in hand, I thought I set the gear shift to "P" for "PARK". But stumbling out to the curb, my two ton van began it's backward escape. IT WAS IN REVERSE INSTEAD OF PARK! Within seconds, my mind was sure I could just jump back in the van and slam my foot on the brake pedal. Good instincts. Great reaction. But my body, however, foolishly took the brunt and helm and decided to intervene. Stopping it or slowing it down while grabbing the driver's side door seemed futile. Uh-oh. I could NOT stop the rolling beast!

Take note: If you're ever in this situation, the one thing that WILL stop a moving driver-less vehicle is a stationary telephone pole. It works every time. The door and I were hanging on for dear life. The pole caught the open door bending it backwards like a scene from a PBS special with a Ken Burn's slo-mo effect. It completely bent all the way around forward and I was jostled between the pole and the side of the van. I maneuvered myself around the door, jumped inside and jammed my foot on the brake. I sat there for about 60 seconds wondering who in the world just witnessed this amazing acrobatic scene. Grabbing the door again from the driver's seat, I attempted to bend the door back to a closed position but by then it was almost 5:45am and I needed to be on the air in fifteen minutes.

SO picture this; here I am, driving the busy rush hour highway with my right hand on the steering wheel and my left hand gripping the door which was wide open - facing the wrong direction! "Jeff is never going to believe this!", I muttered to myself.

When I got to the station, I had one minute to spare before linking up satellites, grabbing the program log and saying, "Good morning - Oldies Radio!" I called Jeff during a commercial break and told him "..something strange happened to the driver's door of the van, honey..."

"Strange" and "honey" -  two unique words in the same sentence - a dead give away to my husband that this wasn't good. His reaction was priceless. After some hundreds of dollars later everything was back to normal. Well, somewhat normal. That not-so-euphoric experience was a conversation piece for some time.....until Jeff had his own "come-to-Jesus-meeting" with a vehicle and a pole at an ice cream stand. But that's another story...

How in the world could that heavy metal door just bend and mold itself around the stationary telephone pole with amazing ease? It reminded me of my friend Brandt Gillespie and his song. His lyrics still stay with me after all these years. Although I don't remember them all, it goes something like this..

"Move me with Your message once again.....and bend my heart once more around the tree..."

(Bend my heart once more around the tree? What could that mean?) 

Here's a few interpretations..

    •Mold my heart around the cross, the stationary immovable depiction of a painful, gruesome method of execution? How strange..

    •Take my most prized life-sustaining organ and exchange it for God's act of love in Christ's sacrifice? How weird is that??

    •Better yet, live each day with a "cross" impression on my heart, much like a piece of metal bending around a telephone pole?? Sounds somewhat foolish..

I'm thinking it makes sense. It makes perfect sense to those of us who, for the Kingdom's sake, desire hearts that are bent over backwards, forwards, sideways - whatever it takes - to make a "God impression" in this world.

1 Corinthians 1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.