RickSpace

So… you have 2 cars, one of which you don’t trust (brakes are going out/gone, etc). You take the one you don’t trust to work, so your wife and child can drive the safe one. Your wife and you have been discussing just getting the brakes fixed and taking this car to the funeral because it IS much more comfortable. You listen to the brakes just GRINDING metal on metal for the whole trip to work. Because your relative has died, it’s finally time to buy a black suit… on your lunchbreak, you drive to the Goodwill because obviously you’re not buying a suit anywhere else. In front of the Goodwill, your car sits in the sun while you’re inside and when you come back out, it won’t start.

So, now you have a car that won’t start AND won’t stop, sitting in front of Poor People R Us (self-inclusive) in 110 degree (heat index) weather… in long sleeves and dresspants (first day in the past week or two you’ve worn long sleeves btw)… thinking about finances and realizing that if you tow the vehicle and get it worked on at all, you’ll not have enough money to go see your grandfather buried. If you leave the vehicle there, you may get it towed FOR you in which case you’re going to be paying an impound fee which you don’t want. You resign yourself to paying the impound fee when you get back, because you can better afford that after the next paycheck than you can ANYTHING right now. At this point is when the situation becomes religious (hence the demarcation of the post as religious)… you get down on your proverbial knees and pray to God for help… anything. You promise him that if you’re not supposed to take the car to Michigan (everything you had done and talked about all morning was in regards to getting the car ready to go on the trip) you won’t… you will do whatever He wants of you… anything… Dejectedly, you turn the key again just to wallow in the crank-crank-crank-die of your motor’s pathetic attempts at ignition… but the engine starts. Huh? Seriously?

Yeah… I don’t know if it was the prayer for help, the fact that the block somehow cooled down even though it was in that heat, mere coincidence, the promise not to take it on the trip, or what… but I guarantee I’ll not be taking the car on the trip, and I’ll be saying extra prayers of thanks.

I really think God knows when we simply cannot handle anything else… nothing more. One more straw and this camel will be a cripple… and at that point he either removes some burden, or he picks you up and supports you through. I was sitting in the parking lot thinking I didn’t deserve to have all this bad stuff happening to me all at the same time… truth be told, I don’t deserve the support and salvation that God gave me to help me when I was in a pinch. I am humbled.