The other day I received one of tragic those phone calls. A young man (only 18 years old), was traveling southbound on Santa Anita avenue, just before Lower Azusa Rd., and apparently he hit the curb, bounced in the opposite direction, skidded across the street, hit a telephone pole, and then flipped in the air taking out 2 trees in the process. He died immediately. The police department contacted me to see if I would be able to assist with the death notification. You can imagine how heart-breaking that was, to knock on the door of an absolutely unsuspecting family, and let them know that their son and brother had died in an automobile accident that morning. There’s no greater pain – please pray for this family.

The officer conducting the investigation said that there were no drugs or alcohol invovled, the explanation for this terrible tragedy was simply that this young man was going too fast. Based on the tire marks left on the street, he estimated the young man to be going 160 miles per hour! So sad, so preventable, such an unecessary tragedy.

Now, most of us won’t be driving that fast (at least I hope not), but I wonder how many of are living that fast? In this country, there is constant pressure to put the pedal to the medal, to do more and more, and grow busier and busier; it’s been said, “If the devil can’t make you bad, he’ll make you busy; if he can’t deceive you he’ll distract you.”

I want to encourage you to be-ever-so careful of self-willed busy-ness. Instead, redeem the time (Ephesians 5:16), and make sure you have quality, quanitity time to spend at the feet of Jesus, every day (Luke 10:38-42). Also, make sure you don’t just find the time, but make the time and take the time; quality, quantity time with your family. Statistics tell us that mom, spends on the average, 14 minutes of alone time with her children each day, and fathers only 5 minutes a day. Statistics tell us that most men spend more time with their computers than with their spouses…no wonder so many families are struggling!

I guess in the end, the most important thing to do is to let God write your schedule, each and every day. When you study the life of Christ, you find that that’s exactly how He lived, day by day, obediently following the plans of His Father.

Maybe it’ time for you to slow down, pull over, get out of the car and take a walk and a talk with God, and just ask Him, “Father, what would You have me to do…all the days of my life?”

Love you! Your brother in Christ,

• Manny