[1687] GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD.

A few years ago- while still working at the fire dept we had to work 4 24 hour shifts straight in a row. Our dept had 24 on- 48 off [worked one day- took 2 days off]. The depts. up north- where my father retired from- they worked one day on- 3 days off, a great deal for sure.

Whenever we had a hurricane in the gulf our chief would have to decide whether or not to activate hurricane duty. Because we were a small dept [30 guys] if the city thought the hurricane would hit close to our area- we needed all the guys to be there.

So as luck would have it- one time the chief activated hurricane duty- right on the morning when our shift was getting off. And he deactivated it- right on the morning when we had to come back to work- 4-24 hour days in a row- a bit much to be honest.

I was ‘on trucks’ [drove the frontline fire truck] and others were on ambulance duty. The problem was the ‘darn’ chief would leave the guys on their initial assignments- all through the week! So you had some guys up for 4 days straight- and whoever lucked out to have ‘logistics’ slept most of the time- because his job was to go to the store and by the breakfast.

Needless to say- the biblical rule of not cursing was violated much during this week. One of the ways you broke the monotony was you cracked jokes- kid the bro’s who you’re working with. One of my buddies, Joe, already had it out for our chief- when he was a rookie the chief made him drive to Kingsville every morning- to punch in the time card- and drive back to Corpus for fire school. Then when he got out of school- he made him drive back again- just to punch out.

It was kind of stupid to be honest- but that’s the way the ball bounced. So we would kid Joe ‘hey Joe- the chief says let’s try and look happy- peppy today- the news reporter is coming for pics’ and Joe would give you a ‘pic’ right there. After our shift did the 4 straight days [me and Joe were both on that shift] other guys were only there for half the time- yet we got stuck riding the main vehicles for the 4 days- kinda dumb to be honest.

But the chief appreciated our work- when we were getting off after the 4^th day- he came by and dropped off some extra stale loaves of white bread that were left over from the week. They were there in the morning sitting on the breakfast table- you know- just as a sign of love for the guys.

Joe and I lived in Corpus- we would often drive home on the same road- either he was in front- or me. The next shift I told the guys ‘you know a funny thing happened on my way home the other morning- as I was driving- I spotted Joe’s truck in front of me- obviously we were both tired after the hurricane duty. And as I drove- I thought I saw Joe eject something from the truck- and as I got closer- I saw 3 stale loaves of white bread lying in the road’.

So yes- the bread was not appreciated that day. Which gets me to the main point [after wasting all this time] in the bible- we have lots of stories/verses dealing with God supplying daily bread- Jesus himself gave us this phrase in the Lord’s prayer. There are lots of good points we can get from this term- but one important point is ‘it’s daily’ that is God can/will ‘speak’ to you on a daily basis, giving you guidance for that day- if you will spend some time listening.

Sometimes this ‘bread’ will come from a friend- sometimes a co worker- or even a family member. Our job is to discern when it comes- and to try and apply it thru out the day. Knowing that yes- in some way- today God gave me this ‘bread’ [direction] and it’s important for me to be grateful- to hear and act on this word. And of course many times it comes from a bible passage that you might read early in the day.

And sometimes the bread comes in the form of a rebuke- a word from a friend/brother that you know is right- but you get grumpy because that’s the way the flesh is. And at those times we have a choice on how we will respond- will we be open- listen to the criticism- maybe ‘eat the bread’ even though it’s a little stale? Or will we be like my buddy Joe- spread it all over the highway as a token of our appreciation?

Note- I did not see the bread on the road- I was kidding with Joe- the guys knew it at the time.

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