Phil
Richards · Christian Maturity Pastor
Have you heard the expression,
"The main thing is to keep the main thing
the main thing."? I recently
experienced this first hand. I had loaded some things
into Shell's Sport Van and after closing the doors, I
jumped in and headed my happy self down FM 3040. All was
great until something buzzed right over my head.
Startled, I scanned the interior of the Sport Van for the
UFO. It appeared again, directly ahead, but to my great
dismay, I was about to have a close encounter of the
traumatic kind. My passenger was a BEE and
he was uptight.
As my adrenalin surged,
I knew it was fight or flight, but what would Shell think
if I came home without the Sport Van? The little devil
suddenly came at me with lightning speed. Unprepared, I
began flailing at the angry ogre. But this only further
inflamed him. A fierce battle raged and when all seemed
hopeless, the bee broke off the attack and set down on
the passenger window. A plan immediately came to me, the
Sport Van has power windows! Just the thing, I thought.
Lower the window and so long.
As I lowered the window
the bee inched upward—my plan was working. At the
moment of truth, however, instead of out the window, he
abruptly charged one last time. A backhand connected, and
he was sent on a one way trip to Star Land.
All of this happened
in the space of a few very intense minutes. As my
head cleared, I became aware of several expressive people
in the oncoming lane of traffic. Their fist- shaking,
angry demeanor suggested that during the battle, the
Sport Van may not have remained in the proper lane.
The fact that the Sport
Van might have swerved a time or two in the lane of
oncoming traffic concerned me greatly. After all, what's
a little bee sting compared with a head on? The main
thing for me was prudently operating the Sport Van.
The tiny terror almost became the main thing,
but fortunately the main thing prevailed
and all but the bee lived to tell the tale. As believers
who follow Christ by faith, we often struggle to keep His
will the main thing in our lives.
It is at this point
that Shelley and I find ourselves. Our road of faith is
leading us to Ft. Worth to enroll in seminary and follow
God's original call for our lives. Because of the demands
of going to school, working full time and giving needed
time to my precious family, I am resigning my position at
NorthShore Church at the end of this year. We will
eventually move closer to Ft. Worth. At this moment, we
don’t know when that will be, but we will always
treasure our friends at NorthShore.
With Love,
Phil and Shelley
Allison, Ashley and Andrew
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