Every week, as I sit in front of my computer screen, in a sense, I throw my bucket into the well and hope I hear a “splash” instead of a “thunk”. A “splash” means there’s something in the well to share. A “thunk” means my bucket hit mud!

Well, this week, the water from my well is not so much instructional as it is encouraging. Let me tell you my story.

On October 28th, a man robbed a bank in a town about ten miles south of Sarasota. Police said the thief entered the bank shortly after 3 p.m. and told tellers that he was armed and wanted money. Shortly after he left the bank with an undisclosed amount of money, police arrived and sent out a county-wide bulletin with a description of him and his car.

Minutes later, a sheriff’s deputy patrolling near Interstate 75, spotted a car matching the description. A high-speed chase began, northbound on I-75. When speeds began topping 100 mph, deputies called off the chase. However, Highway Patrol troopers were waiting for the bank robber up the highway, and the chase began again as he approached Sarasota.

The bank robber exited and headed west, troopers hot on his tail. Using their cars, the troopers managed to corral him into turning onto a boulevard in the sub-division, then onto the cul de sac (where my grandkids live with their parents), a dead end, said the Highway Patrolman. Apparently realizing he was trapped, the crook gave up trying to escape by car. “He got out and tried to run, but one of our troopers tackled him,” the patrolman said.

The first I learned about any of this was when grandson Ben called me on the phone. He was a little breathless and very excited. Ben told me about squealing tires that “sounded a lot like they were at a stock car race.” Turns out that both Ben (13) and Rachael (11) were playing next door outside a neighbor’s home. They saw the perp’s car pull into their half block long street. Debbie, their mother, called them into their home and kept everybody indoors.

The robber spun around the end of the cul de sac, pulled into a yard within 10 feet of a bedroom window. Behind that window lay a sleeping three year old child. The man was armed and approached the door of the home, possibly looking for a hostage. We’ve had several incidences lately where people, in the act of fleeing a crime, have taken hostages and barricaded themselves in stranger’s homes.

A well-trained Highway Patrolman came up behind and ended the chase. Turned out that this man was a serial bank robber. On the spot, he admitted to several recent bank holdups.

Normally, at that time of day, there are more than a dozen children playing on that street and in those yards. As all this began to sink in, I was shaky. I was a little teary. But, above everything else, I was thankful and grateful that the Lord had brought good out of a potentially tragic situation.

I don’t have a lot of profound Life Lessons right now. I can certainly encourage you to:

• Take time frequently to recount all the reasons you have for which to give thanks to the Lord, especially your family.
• Don’t hesitate to make sure your family knows how much you love them, pray for them, and wish good things for them.
• Put all those warm feelings into practice. If your family lives near you, spend time with them. Hug ’em; praise ’em; encourage ’em. If they live far away, use the phone, E-mail, snail mail, visits, etc.
• Life is short. None of us knows what will happen on a given day. We must make the most of the time God gives us with the people whom He’s put into our lives. When our lives come to an end, we don’t want to leave full of regrets!

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