A few nights ago I had the opportunity to fellowship with a dear sweet friend for a few hours. I’m thankful for the times God allows us to visit because she is such a constant source of joy, wisdom and encouragement to me. We had been in discussion about how God doesn’t waste anything we go through but uses every single situation that we encounter in our lives to teach us and then equip us to minister to others. Our Father also desires for us to learn and grow closer in our dependence on Him through those unexpected bumps in the road. Little did I know that I was headed straight for another one of those ‘learning situations’ just a few short minutes after my friend and I said goodbye.
While driving home from the church my son reminded me that we needed to get gas in our truck. I’m extremely thankful for his promptings because I have to admit that I rarely think about checking the gas gauge. And after the “putting wrong gas in our diesel truck” incident from several months ago, Lord willing I will always remember that NOT every gas station carries diesel fuel. Once we found the right gas station, it was already about 11:30 pm. I then got out to help our teen son with fueling up the truck. The boys claimed that they were extremely thirsty and pointed out the fact that the fountain drinks were on sale for 79 cents. I usually encourage them to wait until we get home for a drink, but for some reason I agreed to treat them this time. We finished getting fuel and I grabbed my purse from the truck as we all proceeded inside the gas station. Trying to avoid any drinks with red dye 40 in them, we found some suitable beverages and checked out at the counter. We finished paying and I went to grab my keys so we could finally leave and go home. They weren’t where I usually try to put them, but that doesn’t always mean they aren’t in my purse. Sometimes I lose things in there for weeks, but the missing items eventually do turn up. I believe for this very reason, our oldest son while growing up lovingly referred to my large purse as the ‘endless abyss’. After searching for a few minutes for my keys, our teen son went out to the truck to see if I had left them in the ignition. Indeed, he could see by looking through the window that the keys were locked safely inside our truck!
Of course I knew I'd eventually need to call my husband
to inform him once again of what was going on at the gas station. Whenever I get myself into these sort of crazy
situations, I always begin my conversation with, “Don’t worry Richard, we are still
alive and well. We have not been in an
accident and we are safe and okay.” I
think he has learned from that point what to expect from the rest of this type
of conversation. My goal is to help him remember
to be extra thankful that we are okay, and that this tiny little incident is
not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of life. Of course, he has been quite
understanding each time and only wants us to be safe but I’m covering all of my
bases just in case.
Okay, I’m being totally transparent and admitting that I’m really
not an independent person. For this very
reason I believe God sovereignly knew I needed to get married two days after my
19th birthday. My husband is seven
years older than me and very much the opposite of me, which is exactly how God
planned it. He is usually aware of what
is happening around him, knows where he is going, doesn’t get lost while
driving and doesn’t usually forget things.
If my personality is the exact opposite of those characteristics, then
you’ve guessed it; I don’t always pay attention to everything that’s going on
and I don’t always know where I’m going. I’m directionally challenged and get lost on a
regular basis while driving. I tend to
get distracted easily and don’t always remember things. You are probably wondering how I am able to
even get along in life? Well, the simple answer is that I am dependent
and I realize that I need lots of help.
Don’t get me wrong, I have other God given strengths and qualities that
my Creator uses to glorify Him and serve others but I must admit I have many
weak areas that I seriously need help with. I believe that in our marriages, families and
churches today we have gotten so caught up with the world’s philosophy and
mentality of “I can do it all on my own”, that we don’t even realize that we do
need each other’s help and support. We’ve
gotten away from closely knitting ourselves together in our relationships. We’ve
drifted away from sharing our needs and vulnerabilities with others because we
want to appear to be able to fine on our own without anyone else’s help.
Because we all like to believe that we are totally self
sufficient, we often depend on our own human ability to handle life's situations . We must come to the
realization that we just don’t have the strength and wisdom it takes to solve
all of our problems. We must remember
the reality that we are not independent and we cannot do anything apart from
God. Jesus says in John 15:5 “ I am the
vine, you are the branches. He who
abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me, you can do
nothing.” No matter how big or small
your trial may seem, God always has one goal for His children. Our loving Father wants us on our knees in
prayer of adoration and praise to Him, trusting and depending on His sovereign
will and plan for this life He has given us.
Apart from this, we CANNOT expect to be blessed by God when we are
trusting in our own human abilities or intellect. Our power and strength come from admitting we
are weak, powerless and absolutely nothing with our Savior. In our weakness we can rest assured that
Christ will always show His strength. We
see in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is sufficient for you: for My strength is
made perfect in weakness.”
I’m thankful to God that our gas station story has a happy
ending. I’m learning that we must always
look for the beneficial reasons for why God may have allowed a situation to
come into our lives. The blessings from our little escapade actually turned out
to be numerous! We were able to witness
the kindness of the gas station attendant who gave us a free box full of donuts
to take home, which the boys were extra thankful for. I was able to share with the man about how
God answers my prayers every time these kinds of things happen. I got to spend quality time talking with our
boys about the importance of flexibility and patience during these kind of
situations. We were thankful that we only
had to wait only an hour and thirty minutes for the tow truck to come and
unlock our door for us. I also knew that
God wanted me to share what He was teaching me through this situation with
others through this blog. No matter what
happens in this life, we always need to look for the things we have to be
thankful for.
Our sovereign God is
Amazing! I praise and thank Him for His
love and patient reminders that He is always there for me as my source of power
to accomplish what He has for me to do. I am extremely grateful that I never need to rely
on my own meager strength to accomplish anything. Apart from God’s power, I’m a miserable
failure and I’m okay with that. He continues
to work daily on me by stripping away my pride and bringing me to my knees in humility.
God’s strength is always perfect even though in my own strength I am helpless,
hopeless and sometimes have the potential to be a little hazardous.
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