keeping the faith...

Tonight I'm taking a dose of my own medicine. I'll give you the short version. Believe me, this could be much longer.

Pulling out of my garage Sunday morning on the way to church, my car did not shift correctly into drive as it should. Seconds later, the engine light flashed on. As an aside, I have a good car. She has never had any problems in the 6 years that I've had her.

After church and several prayers, I took her to the only place that is open. Bad leak. Almost no transmission fluid or oil. Transmission codes lit up the engine's computer. The helpful gentlemen there didn't do transmission work but were able to recommend a place that could, Mr. Transmission. They filled my fluids and wished me well, saying it could be just a patch job. I continued to pray with no worries.

Let me begin to condense now. According to Mr. Transmission (Satan), I needed new clutches and a new torque converter which together would cost $2,273. It was at that point I panicked and began to question God.

Didn't He read Resolution # 1? How was I supposed to save money with this kind of a bill? How could my feeling inside of "no worries" have been so wrong? I'm a struggling, single mom, so how could going through this make me a better person?

Then my teammate came by on Tuesday. Her dad was having open heart surgery this week, and she asked me to pray for him. I reassured her that I would. I also told her to give it God. She didn't need to worry because God was in control. "He will take care of you," I said to her. Knowing the pain the loss of a parent brings, I began to put things back into perspective. There are worse things than outrageous car bills. I should listen to my own advice.

Condensing even more now...I happened to mention my situation to another good friend at work. A good Christian friend, who later agree that this was devine intervention. She led me to the man who repaired my car for $60. Yes, just $60, and my car, which had never given me problems, continues to run like a dream.

God never abandoned me, yet I questioned his methods and his techniques because I thought He had. As I tried to remain as positive as possible about the situation, I still wondered why it wasn't turning out just as I had planned. Answer: It's not my plan, and it never was.

"Your love, O Lord, reaches to the Heavens! Your faithfulness stretches to the skies!" Psalms 108: 4