CYBERCOLUMN:
Before and after
___By Berry D. Simpson
___I was remembering that bone-chilling day last January when George Bush came to Midland on the way to his inauguration in Washington, D.C. Someone mailed a photo to me, taken just after the event was over and the crowds had gone home, showing my red nose and ears and cheeks and my hands pulled up into the sleeves of my khaki trench coat, surrounded by empty bleachers and scaffolding and crowd-control fences. In the photo, I am talking to Robert Rendall, who appears to be just as cold as I was.

BERRY D. SIMPSON

___What I remember most about all that was how much work was involved in preparing for his visit. I wasn’t even part of the inside circle, more on the volunteer fringe, yet it was incredible. It completely took over the lives of many very important and very busy people in town, as well as city hall and police and firefighters.
___President-elect Bush’s security people arrived in Midland days before to secure the area and plan travel routes and decide where to set up fences and gates and all that. They knew exactly what they wanted, and they weren’t very flexible about it.
___That level of security is what I think about when I read Psalm 139:5, which says, "You (God) both precede and follow me and place your hand of blessing on my head." I wonder if God makes those same kinds of preparations ahead of me that the Secret Service did for Bush?
___I think he does. I think he moves ahead clearing my path, noting the dangers, guarding the hazards and securing my route.
___For example, more than once I’ve gone into a situation I expected to be very confrontational, only to discover my adversary had reconsidered and was now my ally. This has happened even more frequently since I joined city government. Dreaded situations often turn out to be less onerous than I thought. I have to credit those times to the hand of God—the intervention of God. They were answers to prayer, even when I was so stupid I forgot to pray about them.
___Sometimes God’s early preparations have been on my end rather than my opponent’s. I have avoided numerous confrontations when an appointment was delayed or circumstance changed at the last minute, and by the time I rescheduled, I changed my own mind. I can only credit those times to God’s graceful interventions to save me from further damage; I am too stubborn to change my own mind on my own. I hate to reverse an already-made decision or rethink an already-solved problem, and I am very slow to do it even when I suspect I might be wrong. So, when I discover my heart and mind have changed, I know that change came from God. I know, like the Psalmist knew, that God preceded me and blessed me with a change.
___Thinking again about last January and the Secret Service, I remember how they left town as soon as Bush did, many of them riding in a black bulletproof Chevy Suburban bristling with visible automatic weapons. They did not, however, stay behind to help us clean up our town.
___The verse says God follows me. I believe that means, like the Secret Service who follow behind the president, God follows behind me, watching my back. However, I also believe it means more than that—he doesn’t just protect me, but protects the people I leave behind. He follows behind me helping to clean up the messes I leave in my wake.
___I don’t mean to say God only protects and cleans up my mistakes. His preceding and following isn’t just about bad things; it’s also about blessings. He goes ahead preparing blessings and follows behind ensuring blessings.
___One of the things I’ve learned since I started publishing my journal entries on the Internet is how God uses them to speak to people’s needs. I first started keeping a journal for selfish reasons—I wanted to understand more about myself and about God. Later, I started publishing journal entries because I wanted to become a better writer. As it turns out, God has used my selfish project to present messages and share his grace to people I don’t even know. Who knew all that would happen?
___I can only assume God precedes my journals, working within the hearts of his intended targets (unknown to me), and then afterward he follows behind with changed hearts. There is no other way to explain it except that God precedes and follows and blesses.
___And the psalm says he places his hand of blessing on my head. Wow, I know God will bless our ministries and actions, but I forget that he wants to bless us as individuals.

___Berry Simpson, a Sunday School teacher at First Baptist Church in Midland, is a petroleum engineer, writer, runner and member of the city council in Midland.






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