Left in the wake …

“Why is the paint peeling off my vehicles?” I thought to myself as I started the car one early morning.

“What is this thick, syrupy substance on the windshield?” I asked, noting the chemical had been appearing on my car window the last few days.

When I returned home from the church office later that day, I asked some of my neighbors if they had noticed something on their windshields lately.

They had.

More questions finally led to discovering the Unocal 76 refinery right next to the street we lived on was the culprit. We would later learn the plant had a chemical leak that it allowed to go unabated until it became serious enough it had to temporarily close the plant for repairs.

In the meantime, the leak from the plant had exposed those of us in the community to more than 300 tons of chemicals that coated our homes, our lawns, our vehicles. Lawns and gardens died, paint on cars stripped, and many people became sick from the exposure. I was one of the many who became sick. For me, the exposure meant permanent damage to my sinuses. For about five years after being exposed to the chemical, I exhibited the symptoms of having a severe sinus infection. Yes, day after day, for five years, I dragged myself through the day with the symptoms of a severe sinus infection that really wasn’t a sinus infection. After about five years, those harsh symptoms started to recede.

Today, I still have some kind of symptom from the exposure every day. Often it’s no more than a little sinus drainage that is hardly annoying. But when a storm rolls in and weather changes, it can mean some ugly suffering. Being treated by a team of a dozen physicians in varying specialties for five years left the doctors stymied. When my sinuses flare up, I just have to trudge through the experience until it abates. Fortunately, the harsh symptoms don’t come around much anymore.

The outcome of all the treatment from the chemical exposure is that I have to live with the results of being exposed to the wrecklessness and carelessness of Unocal 76.

Yes, there is a life lesson from this.

What are you and I exposing others to when they come across our paths?

Is their exposure to our lives something that blesses them for years to come, or something that results in ongoing suffering? Paul gives us some guidance in how our lives should touch others:

“Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose. Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had,” Philippians 2:1-5.

The people we interact with will be better or worse for having crossed our paths. How are you impacting those in your sphere of influence?

Scotty