Protect me from me Lord

When I was about seventeen I decided to hitch hike to Sand Point Idaho to fight forest fires for the summer. I had been told that “good money” was to be made in so doing. At the time I was living in Mississippi and it was not an easy thing to hitch hike so far but that “good money” sounded awfully good, so off I went. When I arrived I had about twenty bucks in my pocket and was ready to go to work. The only problem was I got there six weeks before the fire season had begun. Sand Point Idaho was a tiny place in the mountains and not exactly a thriving metropolis and no jobs were to be found. One gentleman told me that there were plenty of jobs and “good money” to be made in Libby Montana working on a big dam project up there. I was told Libby was “just up the road a little ways”.

So I hitch hiked “just up the road a little ways” to Libby Montana. (Actually it was an arduous journey to this place, it took forever to hitch hike through the mountains, and it was definitely not just up the road a little’ ways.) When I arrived I discovered that the dam project was on hold because all of the workers were on strike. No one was hiring anywhere and on top of that it was freezing cold and I was broke. I decided that I needed to go somewhere warm and took off hitch hiking to Tijuana Mexico or sunny California at the least. On the outskirts of town an old man picked me up in a rattle trap pickup and gave me a ride. We rode along for quite a while and then right in the middle of a very flat and extremely desolate looking long stretch of highway he pulled to a stop and told me that this is where he turned off. Incredulously I looked at him and asked if he was kidding or what. It was in the middle of nowhere. He told me that he lived at the end of a faint looking pig trail that turned off to the right and into the desert.

I got out and there was not a house in sight, nor was there any building or anything within sight in any direction. The old man did turn off into the desert and drove his junk pickup down the faint trail and was soon out of sight. I sat there for hours. It was freezing cold and I had a sleeping bag that I would get in to try and stay warm and to break the freezing wind that howled across the desert plains. About every hour a car would come streaking down the highway. It would appear first as a shiny dot on the horizon. As the dot got bigger and the car approached, I would get out of my sleeping bag, try to comb my hair and look pitiful and stick out my thumb. The car would pass me by like a streak leaving my hair flapping in the breeze. Not only did no-one pick me up, it seems as if they would speed up when passing me. I could not get a ride for anything and it was senseless to try to walk as I could see for probably fifty miles in both directions and nothing was in sight. Not good! I was beginning to imagine that I saw buzzards beginning to circle me.

After many hours of this, finally a Highway Patrol car pulled up and stopped. After running my driver’s license and making sure I was not wanted for some heinous crime he asked me what in the world I was doing out in the middle of nowhere. I recounted my story and he nearly died laughing. He went on to tell me that the old man had let me out in a twenty mile stretch right between a prison and an insane asylum and there were signs posted everywhere not to pick up hitch hikers. The highway patrol officer said the old man had to have known what he had done and probably got a big laugh out of it. The patrolman was a really nice guy and gave me a ride all of the way to the Oregon border where I was able to catch a ride on south. I still believe that God directed that nice man to my rescue and i wish i could thank him again today.

As I think about this and other events in my life I picture God watching me with sheer amazement as I do stupid thing after stupid thing. He has to be amused at times and other times question why I do not use my God given brain to ‘think’, instead of acting impulsively without thinking. One would suppose that before hitch hiking all of the way across country that more effort would be utilized to ensure that a job would be waiting.

This story actually gets worse and I ended up hitch hiking and hopping freights all over the country before it was over, but there is no time to tell it all. Suffice it to say that I am very glad that God loves me enough to watch over a foolish person like me. The Bible states that every hair of our head is numbered. God loves us and watches over our every move; (In addition to His duties of ruling and managing all of creation.) When I left Mississippi on into Idaho and Montana and out into that desert and beyond, He was right there with me, watching over me, protecting me and loving me. Today He is still right there with me and even today He is still watching in utter amazement as I on occasion do some of the dumbest things. I know and am assured in the Bible that He is always right there watching my every move, ready to step in and rescue me. I don’t understand why God loves us and takes time from His busy schedule to protect us, (often from ourselves), but I for one am very grateful

Psalm 8:3
When I consider Your heavens,
the work of Your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which You have set in place,
what is man that You are mindful of him?