God affects our lives every day

An incident happened a few months ago that I felt compelled to share. We have a small sawmill. I use a small single boom and winch to load logs onto the mill. The boom and winch is mounted with four bolts to a truck. I have had this boom and winch for about 20 years. I have used it many times without incident.

Because of the way everything is set up, I have to stand in front of — and to some extent under — the boom most of the time when I am winching logs on to the mill. As I was pulling logs onto the mill one log on the bottom was especially large as I worked my way down to it. I felt the anticipation of cutting it begin to grow. It would be the largest that I had cut in a long time.

Repeatedly, I powered out the cable out on the winch then pulled the smaller logs onto the mill without incident. Finally, the time came to hook onto the large log. I pushed the switch to wind out the cable. Nothing happened. I pushed the button to wind in the cable. Still nothing. I soon discovered the cable had back spun on the cable drum. I was surprised that the winch had back spun, as that had never happened before.

To repair this I had to completely disassemble the boom and remove the winch from the mounting brackets. I struggled several hours in the pouring rain to complete the repair. Finally, with the repairs in place I picked up the winch to remount it. Suddenly, I saw something that made me stop cold. One of the mounting brackets was lying on the ground. I am sure that the bracket was firmly attached when I removed the winch as it fits tight and is difficult to remove. I stared at the mounting bracket for several seconds. The realization of what would have happened had I had tried to pull the large log — the last mounting bracket would have broken. When considering the tension on the cable and the weight of the boom and winch, the results could have been disastrous. In the least, I would have been seriously hurt when the other bracket broke.

This incident started me thinking about the number of times God has stepped into my life to affect an outcome I never thought of. I remembered a time when a broken water line on the truck slowed down a trip. Strangely enough, the breakdown occurred near a creek and I was able to repair the water line and get water from the creek. The break down only took minutes to repair. I have to ask myself why the trivial break down and the blessing of a creek only a few yards away? What was going on that I avoided a worse problem with that break down? Was there wildlife on the road, a drunk driver?

A few years ago I was jacking up a building. I had been under the building for a few hours. I was nearly done when suddenly something told me to get out from under the building. Even today, I’m not sure why I suddenly stopped when I was nearly through, as I stepped out from under the building it shifted then fell off the blocking. Had I stayed where I was the building would have crushed me.

A few months before the winch incident, I had an accident with a wood joiner.

While operating it, one of my fingers was caught in the blades. The joiner cut the top of my finger to the bone. To make a long story short, the nurse at the hospital said that the doctor would probably have to amputate the end of that finger. My reply was simple: “Well, I got six extras anyway, I can spare one.” (I already trimmed one off). Now the finger looks almost the same as the others, there was no need to amputate the end of the finger.

Some ask where is God? What has God done for me lately? My response is always the same; what have you done for God lately? Then I ask that person stops and think back on those times were a small change in plans made a difference that averted disaster that they know of. Maybe the flat tire on the way to the important meeting slowed you down enough to avoid a serious car accident. There are many cases where people missed planes that crashed and everybody on board died. Now consider how many times things happened that we are unaware of.

Still not convinced? How about the fact that you live in the freest, most prosperous country in the world and as Alaskans we enjoy the most beautiful country in the United States (at least I think we do).

Every day my prayer always has three elements that are included: I pray for safety, wisdom and that God’s will for me in my life will be irrelevant of what I want. For more than 50 years, God has answered that prayer.

I will close with this thought. Several years ago I worked with a man, and if you asked him how he was doing his reply was always, “Better than an orphan living in the gutter in Calcutta with no way out.”

Mike Blodgett is chaplain for Lighthouse Chapel. Contact him at lighthouse_chapelak@yahoo.com.

Opinions expressed on the Faith page are the author’s and are not necessarily those of the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman, its staff or its parent company, Wick Communications Co. To submit a column or other news for the Faith page, send e-mail to news@frontiersman.com, or call 352-2268.