The Nugget:
Isa 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
My Comment:
Thirty-four years ago today, March 13, 1986, I was shot in the back of the head at point-blank range as I was entering Southeastern High School. It was 7:15 am. I was knocked unconscious onto the mud of the back teachers’ parking lot just outside the windows of the basement-level ROTC classroom.
The individual robbed me of what little cash I carried–thirty-three dollars. He wanted my wallet too, but I put it back into my pocket.
I had taught at this high school for twelve years by that time. Unfortunately, the school was out-of-control in my estimation. The student attendance rate was very poor. Many times there were more students wandering in the halls than were attending classes.
My own students respected me and appreciated the help I gave them. But the students I did not know were constantly calling me out of my name. They attempted to disrupt my classes by opening the classroom door and shouting obscenities at me or the class. One time three male students entered the class and “mooned” in front of the class (by pulling down their jeans and exposing their buttocks). Another time my class was disturbed by a female student in a very short skirt who entered my room, sat in an upper level seat, and spread her legs wide and made lewd and obscene comments.
The day I was shot, I wondered what the Lord’s purpose was in allowing that to happen. It certainly was a very unpleasant experience, to put it mildly. But, looking back on this event, the Lord removed me from a very difficult place of work. The nearly five years I was off teaching gave me time to finish preparing my first Bible reference book, The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, and to do a more thorough work of collecting cross references than originally planned.
There have been difficult and unpleasant experiences since, but through all the difficulties, I believe the Lord has had an ultimate purpose for the greater spiritual good that benefits many more people spiritually than would otherwise have been possible.
Psa 121:8 The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.