There are moments in life that feel small while they are happening: a late check at breakfast, a wrong turn, or traffic at the wrong time. A few seconds or minutes lost that seem meaningless in the grand scheme of things.
Then years later, you realize those split seconds may have mattered more than you ever knew.
It was July 15, 2015, and we were headed to Florida for a family summer vacation. We loaded up the car after work and started south with no real plan other than to drive until it made sense to stop for the night.
Back then we were a family of five with a soon to be one-year-old, a seven-year-old, and a twelve-year-old. Three kids at three completely different stages of life, all crammed into one car, all with completely different needs and completely different opinions about the radio.
We made good time and landed in Chattanooga for the night. It felt like a smart stop. We grabbed a hotel, got some sleep, and woke up ready to finish the drive.
The next morning there was a Cracker Barrel right beside the hotel, so breakfast was an easy call.
Now, if you know me, you know I take pride in making good time on a road trip. Beating the estimated arrival time is one of those pointless dad competitions that somehow feels very important in the moment.
But something happened that morning.
I don’t remember exactly what it was now. Maybe the server was slow bringing the check. Maybe traffic boxed us into the parking lot. Maybe it was just one of those tiny travel annoyances that steals five or ten minutes from you.
Whatever it was, we were delayed.
And in my mind, we were now behind record pace.
Still, our family has always loved exploring new places, and none of us had ever really seen downtown Chattanooga. So we decided to take a quick detour and drive through the city before getting back on the interstate.
I can still remember coming down the exit ramp.
Blue lights.
A police car driving straight toward us.
Then two or three more units sliding sideways to block the ramp.
Cars in front of us swerved hard and rushed back onto the interstate to avoid the blockade. We had no idea what was happening.
We kept driving, confused, and saw the same scene repeated at the next several exits. Roadblocks. Police everywhere. Chaos building in real time.
We scrambled to find a local news station on the radio.
That’s when we heard it.
There was an active shooter on the loose in Chattanooga.
The attacker had opened fire at multiple military locations and fired more than one hundred rounds during the assault.
I’m not claiming we would have driven directly into danger. Maybe nothing would have happened. Maybe we would have been nowhere near it.
But the truth is simpler than that.
We don’t know.
And that’s the part that stays with me.
A slow breakfast check. A blocked parking lot. A few lost minutes that irritated me at the time.
Those tiny delays kept us from beating the police blockade to downtown.
Life is full of moments like that. Not every setback is punishment. Not every delay is failure.
Sometimes the smallest monuments in time change your life forever.
What we read has a way of shaping how we think, often in small ways we don’t notice until much later. Here’s a look at the articles, blog posts, and books that have recently captured my attention and added something worthwhile to the journey. I’d love to hear what has been on your reading list lately too, so feel free to share.