I thought got over the problems I had two weeks ago. I thought I stepped onto new ground and everything was going to be fine.
Very few times am I right, and this wasn't one of them.
A couple of weeks ago, I had a terrible day. Our electricity was off for over six hours. My printer died, and I needed to get a new one. A scam artist called and said my daughter was in prison and I needed to give him $2500 for her bail.
What a day that was. I'm still not fully over it, but I'm slowly getting away from it.
While getting over it, I experienced another terrible day. I don't believe in karma, but I do believe in coincidences.
It was a Sunday, and The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage and I did our ministry at an assisted living facility, and then on Sunday night, we went to an evening service at another church.
In the middle of the afternoon, The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage got hit with one of her famous migraines. She has migraines, ugly headaches, and regular headaches several times a week. For many years, I thought I was her only headache, but as it turns out, I'm not her headache. I guess I'm going to have to try harder.
I was getting ready to go to church, and my wife said that she could not go because she had a terrible migraine headache.
The problem was that when I went out and got in my truck to start it, it wouldn’t start. The battery had died on me. There was nothing I could do to get it started.
I sat in the truck for a moment, sighed deeply, and realized that I had only one other option.
I went into the house and told my wife about my truck, saying I would have to take her sissy van to church. I'm not sure, but I think I heard her giggling as I walked out the door with her sissy van keys.
There is nothing I hate doing more than driving that sissy van. After all, I am a fully grown man and that sissy van cannot handle a real man.
To get in on the driver's side, I have to move the seat back as far as it can go. Believe me, it doesn't go back far enough for me. Then, I have to wiggle and wiggle to get into the seat behind the steering wheel. That took almost forever to get seated there.
The next thing to do was move the steering wheel up as far as I could get it so I could sit in that seat. Then I had to adjust all of the mirrors so I could see behind me and on each side. There are three mirrors, and each is very difficult to rearrange.
It took me quite a while to get everything arranged so that I could drive that sissy van. Finally, after quite a while of frustrating twisting and turning, I got seated behind the steering wheel and was ready to start up the engine. The next challenge was buckling the seat belt.
As I looked at the key, the thought that danced in my head was, "This battery is going to die on me too." Fortunately, that did not happen in the sissy van, which started up right away.
I took a deep sigh and backed out of our driveway and headed down the street toward the church. It's about a 20-minute drive to our church, and so I was a little late, but I would get there in time.
Then I got there, and discovered another problem. Getting into that sissy van was difficult, but now getting out was even more difficult. I couldn't get my legs out under the driving wheel, and it took me a while, giggling and twisting. Finally, I got my legs out.
I stood up, shut the door, locked it, and walked into the church.
After the service, I went out to the sissy van with a heavy heart. I couldn't let anybody see me wiggling and squirming, trying to get into that sissy van. I wasn't quite sure what to do, so I went to the sissy van and unlocked the door.
I took a deep breath, opened the door, and then wiggled and twisted my way in behind the steering wheel. It took several minutes for me to drag my legs in at their proper position. Finally, I got in my seat, started the engine, and was ready to go home.
With a grateful heart, I drove out of the parking lot, thankful that I got this far. Then I remembered that when I got home, I had to get out of that sissy van one more time.
It took me a few minutes to wiggle my way out of that sissy van, but I finally did.
As I recovered from that trip I thought of a Bible verse. “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).
There is no problem or struggle in my life that God doesn’t make a way to escape. Praise the Lord.