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Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life
by Tom Kelley
Last evening I was reminded of my days working for the Fayette County Highway Department in Ohio. No, I didn't see a dump truck or a road crew or a grater. Last evening I had a sharp pain in my left achilles tendon. I hadn't had a pain there in quite some time. The reason I have those pains periodically is due to an incident while working with the Fayette County Highway Department.
We were assigned to fill burms one day. That was a task which required a piece of machinery called a burm box and three workers. The burm box was a slanted hopper with a gate on the low end which opened and closed manually to allow the operator to release the proper amount of gravel into the channel of the burm, that part of the roadway right at the edge of the pavement. The burm box attached to the back of a dump truck which would then pull the box down the road while the truck driver released his precious cargo of stone into the hopper on the burm box.
Regardless of how skilled the burm box operator was there was always a certain amount of spill over which got onto the road surface. This is where the other two men were involved. They walked behind the burm box and swept the excess stone into the burm. During one run the truck driver got the burm box hopper too full and much of the stone spilled onto the road. The truck was stopped as very little of the precious stone had made it into the burm.
I was furtively sweeping the stone into the burm when our crew chief called to the driver to back the truck up a little. Before I could get out of the way the lower edge of the burm box caught my left achilles tendon just above the heel and threw me, right knee first, onto the pavement. My achilles was severely bruised and my right knee cap was partially shattered. Since that day I have occasional pains in both of these parts of my body to remind me of the damage that was done that day.
What are your reminders? What do you have in your memory banks that every now and then causes you pain when you think about it? What trigger is there that reminds you of a time when sin caught you unawares and you were overcome? "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." 1 Peter 5:8 When that pain hits you, when that trigger happens, you hear the lion's roar. Move out of his path. God will help you to do so.
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...He was the Minister of the Minorsville Christian Church located near Stamping Ground, KY.
...Becky and Tom have three children; John, single and in worship ministry in Nicholasville, Kentucky; Sean, married (Jennifer, elementary school teacher) with twins (Grace and Patrick, b.d. 10/31/04) and regional director of Papa John's Pizza in Central KY; Kara, married (Vince Taylor, prison guard) and working with Hospice East in Winchester, KY.
...Tom went to be with the Lord on November 13, 2009 after a lengthy battle with cancer. If you have been touched by Tom's writings please send an email to Tom's son at jkelley@catalystchristian.net
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