God's Scrap Metal

Candi Freeland and I were just finishing a talk segment of the first morning of WTRT's (88.1 FM) spring sharathon, when I heard the signal drop out of my headphones. Since I was monitoring the actual radio feed I knew there was a problem at the transmitter. It turned into a day I will probably never forget.

My first thought was that perhaps the electricity had gone off. I asked someone to call the transmitter's remote control computer to run a simple test. If the electricity is off the remote unit will not answer. It answered. So, I checked the STL feed from the station. It was fine. Therefore, I knew we had a problem at the transmitter site, a very rare occasion for WTRT and, as it turned out, the problem was very rare for any radio station!

It takes only minutes to get from our studios and offices in Hardin to WTRT's transmitter site. Just before I reached the turn-off point off on U.S. 641 I casually glanced to my left, as always, to look at the tower on which WTRT's antenna is mounted. At first I wasn't sure what was going on, or maybe even where I was. I couldn't see the tower. "It must be an illusion," I thought. "Surely the tower hadn't fallen?"

Well, I was sort of right. It hadn't just fallen, but it was on the ground; all 420 feet of it. Some men were working with heavy equipment near the guy wires of the tower, when the equipment clipped the bottom wire and, well that's just not a good thing.

But, what a wonderful, merciful and graceful God we have! No one was killed or even hurt! The men working around the tower were able to get out of the way or were provided protection. Amazingly, the tower fell all around WTRT's transmitter building without so much as touching the building!

We did sustain damage to WTRT's broadcast antenna and transmission line. That has been replaced. We received FCC authorization to move to a temporary site and put WTRT back on the air within a couple of days.

Oh, remember, I said I'd probably never forget the day WTRT's tower collapsed? It's not that it was all that traumatic and disastrous, or that it happened during sharathon that will make it so memorable. It's what happened when I finally got home that day, May 7th.

You see, I figured I could stay at the station and stomp around, go to the fallen tower site and stomp around, or, I could go home and rest. I decided to go home and rest. I got home, sat down in my recliner and reached over to the lamp table where I keep a copy of My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers.

I turned to the May 7th devotional and the scripture text for the day is Luke 14:28, "Which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it..."

No! I'm not kidding! Get a copy and see for yourself. I'll never be able to see that devotion or that scripture without remembering what happened that day. I laughed out loud. I believe God laughed and enjoyed the moment too! What a wonderful God we have. He has a great sense of humor.

He reminded me that He didn't even flinch when the tower fell. It did not surprise Him and that He would take all the circumstances involved and work them together for our good. He is faithful. He is our Strong Tower.

Wanna buy some scrap metal? I know someone who has several tons for sale.

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By Darrell Gibson, President of Heartland Ministries which operates WTRT, WAAJ and WVHM in Hardin, Kentucky and WAJJ in McKenzie, TN. Using several satellite stations they broadcast Christian programming to parts of three states. (www.heartlandradio.org)

Today's Daily Wisdom post was edited by Keith Todd, moderator of theSermon Fodder list which offers Christian humor and modern day parables forenjoyment and for use as sermon illustration material. To subscribe go to http://www.sermonfodder.com or drop an email note to Sermon_Fodder-subscribe@yahoogroups.com