Broken Down Cars and Perfect Promises

It won't be long now and Sook and I will be on a trip- a long one, overseas, without the kids.

It is surreal to think about it. We always talk about "someday", but someday has come for this dream. And everything seems to be going wrong.

Therefore, my battle includes resistance to discouragement, with a strategy of magnifying God and remembering the stories of His provision.

Here is one:

Four of us college girls were in my parent's minivan traveling to Denver for the Christmas Conference that Campus Crusade for Christ held every year. We were in a caravan of cars, equipped with CB radios. I also had a ginormous cell phone for real emergencies.

I was super excited for my friends to hear a testimony on a tape that my mom had let me take along, told by....I can't remember ... from the Mafia. He was deep into it, then gave his life to following Christ, and left. The story ended with everyone who was determined to kill him out of the picture. It was full of real serious examples of God's provision. It showed a real merciful and powerful God. It made me cry, and I wanted everyone to hear it.  But no one did, because four girls in a car can't keep quiet long enough to actually listen.

We had stopped in Limon, Colorado for gas, but didn't make it two miles out. My car simply stopped driving, right before Mafia man was getting to the best part of his story. Our caravan lined up on the side of I-70, guys had the hood up trying to figure out the problem, girls....uh, letting the guys figure out the problem. No one could.

One girl offered to let me use her AAA benefits to tow the van to Dever. With my '95 cell phone, we were able to call for a tow. She had 100 free towing miles. We had 100 miles to go, almost exactly. No charge.

I could ride with the tow truck driver along with one chivalrous young man, but my passengers did not have transportation. That is, until a young lady pulled up behind us to see if she could help. She was alone, a KU college student (we were k-staters), going to the very same conference. She had seen us on the side of the road and decided to turn around, and she had three empty seats.

The van was towed to a mechanic near our hotel. When we went to pick it up, they told me it was a fuse that needed to be replaced. The cost was $37. That van drove many more miles before it's replacement was needed.

My entire group seemed to be a little excited about how our problem worked out. One person even told it as a testimony at a later CCC meeting. It wasn't until later that realized that I should have shared the rest of the story.

When I picked up the van, it worked perfectly. One thing, however, was wrong. My tape was gone. Stolen. And I remembered he was just getting to the good part. It must have resumed when the car started. That was the one time I was glad someone had stolen from me. Someone liked his testimony, too...enough to steal the tape. Of course, I have no idea how that impacted that mechanic, but I'm sure he listed to it.

I'm am not one to believe that God makes cars break down. Maybe sometimes... maybe. But what I know is that He is always bigger than my problems. Huge, like an elephant vs. mouse. Or the sun vs. the moon. And He always can make good things come out of bad things.

We've learned that from Moses, Abraham, David, Ruth, Esther, and so many more Bible heros. I believe God is still the same today.

I had a somewhat similar car situation happen last weekend. It was horrible, but I kept thinking, "something good will come out of this". I don't know what it was, but something did, because that is God's promise, and He is constant.

Magnifying God, remembering His provision, and holding fast to His promises. I pray that I can remain constant in my circumstances because I know that He is constant.