“I believe that any man's life will be filled with constant and unexpected encouragement, if he makes up his mind to do his level best each day, and as nearly as possible reaching the high water mark of pure and useful living.” Booker T. Washington (1856-1915).

I went with some college friends to Dallas, Texas, during the July 4^th weekend in 1994 to attend a concert by The Eagles. If you are not familiar with this band, they were very popular during the seventies and their music still receives a lot of air play on classic rock and country music radio stations. They have a broad base of fans, in fact, one member of our party was the mother of my friends. They broke up in the early eighties and thousands of their fans had been passionately clamoring for a reunion tour for over a decade before they actually got back together.

None of us knew the “Metroplex” area very well and we did not have a map so we had a little trouble getting to the stadium. We made a few wrong turns and went on a few side tours before arriving, fortunately, in plenty of time. The real problem came when we tried to leave several hours later. Since we weren’t able to see the same landmarks we had observed when we arrived, we made a lot of wrong turns and wasted at least two hours repeatedly driving past the Dallas-Fort Worth airport.

Obviously, we should have done more planning before embarking on our journey, but we were not the least prepared people for this event. There was a crowd of approximately seventy thousand people at the concert who were unbelievably enthused about their favorite band being together. The partied before, during, and after the concert and alcohol was a prominent part of most of the celebrations.

Yet, their excitement paled to insignificance compared to the fervor generated by the fans of the teams playing in a World Cup soccer match in the Cotton Bowl the same day. For those who aren’t soccer fans, the World Cup is easily the most watched sporting event in the world. Millions of people all over the planet follow every match in the tournament which plays out over several weeks and, in 1994, all over the United States. Thousands of international fans came to our country that year to follow their country’s team. Many of these fans did not speak or read English but they did not let this stop them from renting cars while they were here. Many of the fans drank heavily around the games and did not let this stop them from driving their rental cars.

When you put a bunch of drunk Eagles fans on the road along with a bunch of drunk soccer fans who couldn’t read the signs when they were sober and add all of the local drunk drivers celebrating the July 4^th holiday, the roads in the Dallas/Fort Worth area were indeed a scary place. I was told a few weeks later about the number of traffic fatalities in the area that weekend and while I don’t remember the number specifically, I do remember being shocked when I heard it. I couldn’t help but think that it wasn’t such a good idea to have the World Cup and The Eagles concert on the same day which was in the middle of a summer holiday weekend. While the lack of planning on our part cost us a good deal of time and convenience, the lack of planning by others, including the exuberant fans, cost some people their lives.

When things go according to our plans, our lives usually flow very smoothly and we feel that things have truly gone according to plan. Yet, if we accurately evaluated our successes in life, we would usually see good fortune or assistance came our way from an unexpected source. However, when things do not go according to our plans and we encounter stress and difficulty, we usually say that the problems we have encountered were unexpected. Perhaps the obstacles were unexpected but that doesn’t mean that we should not have expected them. With a little more research, thought, and prayer, we may well have seen the potential obstacles before they arose and have been prepared to deal with them or avoid them altogether.

Fortunately, we do not have to develop a plan for the most important aspect of our lives. God has given us the plan that we need to follow and there is nothing that can happen to us that He has not anticipated. In fact, He teaches us to embrace obstacles and challenges as they arise and present us an opportunity for growth and teaching others.

Apr. 30 IRS Party! Have you made that crafty item you are bringing to watch everyone drool over yet? Linda is

Bulletin 2005

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