Think It Out Before You Act It Out

August 23, 2026

I had it all planned out, and I left home in plenty of time to reach my destination by 8:30, so it wasn’t my fault. Today (Friday), I was registered to attend a kidney cancer symposium at the Vanderbilt Marriott Hotel. It was supposed to start at 8:30, and I drove into the parking lot at 8:10. So far, so good. The first thing I noticed was that the hotel had, like, four outdoor parking spaces, all of which were taken. There were a kazillion empty spaces, but I discovered they were all reserved for the restaurants and retail shops around the corner. Basically, people going into the hotel had to use the parking garage. Once again, so far, so good. Here is where it happened. There are supposed to be two lanes going into the parking garage. One was for valet parking, the other was for people like me who prefer to park their own car. A brown station wagon with Williamson County plates was stopped in the lane I was using to enter the parking garage. I sat behind it for a bit, and then I noticed that the car was empty. I said to myself, self, you aren’t going anywhere, fast. I don’t know who parked the car and then left it blocking the lane. I suspect it was the valet people who wanted everybody to use valet parking. So now I had to back up and drive back around to get into the loooooong line waiting for valet parking. That lane had a line of cars backed up almost out into West End Boulevard. By now it was 8:20. As I sat stopped in this lane, I used my keen sense of deduction and ascertained that this line of cars wasn’t moving, so I did a little more ascertaining and realized cars in this lane weren’t only for vehicles going into the parking garage, it was also for vehicles with people who had checked out of the hotel, which meant loading luggage, kids and everything in between. It was now 8:35, and I hadn’t moved forward at all. I thought about parking my truck and going to give the valet people (who were all running around with both hands full of car keys) a piece of my mind. Then I remembered that I have preached several sermons, taught several classes, and written several “Plank’s Ponderings” about having two ears and one mouth. I also figured I didn’t have any mind to spare, so I kept my thoughts to myself. By now, it was 8:45 with very little forward movement. It was then that I made a very mature decision. I said to myself once again, self, you didn’t really want to go to that symposium anyway. Fortunately, I had enough room behind me to turn around and head back to Fairview, so that’s what I did. Yes, I was inconvenienced, but I’ve been inconvenienced before and probably will be again. Thanks for letting me carry on about my frustrating morning. Here is a little public service announcement. We are all going to find ourselves in situations that are beyond our control. We can either choose to go ballistic and make what is already a bad situation worse (and maybe need bail money) or we can remember who we are and Who we represent and make the best of it. For once, I did just that, and I feel much better than I would have if I had done what I felt like doing. I’ve worked in the men’s prison, and I know for a fact that I wouldn’t do so well in jail. You probably wouldn’t either, so let’s let God lead us through our day and let’s do all we can to give Him the glory.

Be Blessed and then go be a Blessing . . . Bro. Andy