Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace, be still!" And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. - Mark 4:29.

A few weeks ago I was back in my hometown. While there, one evening I had to run to Wal-Mart to get a few things. I had been on the road all day and I was really tired by 9:00 pm when I pulled into the parking lot.

I ran in and did my shopping as fast as possible, but when you’re a man and don’t know where things are, it’s not all that fast. Eventually, I had everything I needed, checked out and headed for my car in the parking lot.

When I got to the car, I put my key in the door, but it wouldn’t turn. This made me a little worried. On the way down, I had stopped at Crossroads Mall in OKC. When I came back to my car, I couldn’t get my key to work right then either. It wouldn’t turn over the ignition until I had jiggled it around for about 10 minutes.

I thought that my key must be damaged or something. The same key not only starts the car, but also opens the doors. Anyway, I stared jiggling the key all around. I would shake it this way and that way. I would twist it back and forth and back and forth. After 10 minutes of this, I was about to lose it. After 15 minutes, I did. I dropped my sacks and used both hands to move that key around. I even started having a conversation with my Explorer about what a good for nothing car it had been. I may have even been yelling.

During this tirade, I was shaking my head back and forth and one time when I did, I noticed another forest green explorer just a few spaces down. I thought to myself, no way…. I gathered up my sacks and went to try the other Explorer. Of course, my key slid right in and opened that door right up.

Before I could get in, I had to look over to the people that had been in the parking lot who had seen me verbally abuse this other car and then walk over to a different one. I just raised my voice a bit and said, hey, both of them were forest green!

In life there are often times when we are tempted to "lose it." Usually, if we’ll just take a deep breath and a good look around the whole situation, we’ll save ourselves a great deal of embarrassment.