For what it’s worth… I saw the bees before I shut the door of my car. Trouble was, I didn’t see them all!

Of all the exhilarating experiences I’ve had recently, this was a dandy!

Something had the bees all stirred up of this I am sure, just what I don’t know.

Running errands on Mondays is my usual routine and I was in a bit of a hurry to finish the list of places to go so I quickly jumped in the car, rolled up the windows and headed to my next stop thinking how clever I was to outwit the flying dart guns and slip away unharmed.

It was then I glanced at my rearview mirror catching a glimpse of not one, but lots of bees circling around in the back seat!

“Be calm, Tim,” I thought to myself… “just pull over and GET OUT OF THE CAR!”

This I did with remarkable speed providing passersby with a very creative interpretive dance routine by the side of the road followed by a precise inspection of my vehicle rivaling what only our wonderful state troopers accomplish while looking for contraband during a traffic stop.

Bees were escorted outside while I resumed my assignment… by myself, I might add from with the confines of a bee-free car.

When the chips are down, or the bees are buzzing about, you do what needs done!

Puts me in mind of the story of Ray Blankenship.

One summer morning as he was preparing his breakfast, he gazed out the window and saw a small girl being swept along in the rain-flooded drainage ditch beside his Andover, Ohio, home.

Blankenship knew that farther downstream, the ditch disappeared with a roar underneath a road and then emptied into the main culvert.

Ray dashed out the door and raced along the ditch, trying to get ahead of the foundering child.

Then he hurled himself into the deep, churning water.

Blankenship surfaced and was able to grab the child’s arm.

Within about three feet of the yawning culvert, Ray’s free hand felt something, possibly a rock protruding from the bank.

He clung desperately, but the tremendous force of the water tried to tear him and the child away.

“If I can just hang on until help comes,” he thought. He did better than that.

By the time fire department rescuers arrived, Blankenship had pulled the girl to safety.

On April 12, 1989, Ray Blankenship was awarded the Coast Guard’s Silver Lifesaving Medal. The award is fitting, for this selfless person was at even greater risk to himself than most people knew. Ray Blankenship can’t swim!

May the God of heaven raise up a new courageous generation of heroes of the faith who will in the words of Paul, “be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

I happen to think that we, each of us, were made not only in the image of God, but that we are created for a divine purpose!

And because of that, we need to jump into the current whether we can swim of not because there is a world around us being swept away.

Paul’s words I referenced were placed strategically at the end of a chapter that describes the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Because of all that God through Christ has done… it’s time for us to get involved.

Here’s the grand part of the challenge before us.

If we do what we do for the right reason, the results are up to God! Whether we see the results or not, what we do will not be in vain.

As my dear old friend, Dr. Talmage Johnson, used to say “the world at its worst needs the church at its best!”

I’ve heard it said, pioneers draw the maps, but they seldom get to enjoy them.

We are tasked with obedience, not the end result.

As our culture drifts by, drawn into the abyss of secularism, we who possess a Biblical Worldview must dive in and make the difference we can, while we can all the while believing that God is shaping and changing hearts and lives that will affect the next generation.

I heard a great leader and dear friend say a few days ago, “I believe that we are experiencing a national revival and awakening.”

Then he added, “the challenge has always been, those in the middle of such national spiritual awakenings aren’t aware at the time it’s happening!”

Perhaps that’s the case.

This I do know, it’s God that sends awakenings, my part is to be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.

Let the bees buzz and the currents roar… I’m jumping in to make a difference!

Tim Throckmorton is the national director of Family Resource Council’s Community Impact Teams.