This is the story of why I am so relieved that February has finally passed us by.
It all started with a text from my husband on Friday, January 31st, “Lynn was in accident. She is fine, but car is totaled.”
“Well,” I thought, “I guess it had to happen. At least she’s not hurt. I guess we’ll just have to deal with all the insurance stuff and replace the car.” I was not overly concerned. The other girls and I finished watching “Parenthood” with Gramma before heading home.
The next day we got a really nice rental car and it is possible that some of us were thinking the accident might have been a blessing in disguise . . .
Throughout the next week there were lots of phone calls and accident scene diagrams, discussions with the body shop, etc. Just to keep things interesting, our youngest daughter came home from school with an earache and before I could get her in to see the doctor, her eardrum burst.
Why can’t we just have one emergency at a time?
As Friday rolled around again, it seemed we would be wrapping things up with the car . . . the insurance company officially totaled it and determined the value. We were given instructions for transferring title and receiving funds.
There were only two little problems.
The first was that our very old, but very reliable old (did I mention it was old) car did not fetch a very high “book” value. We could not realistically replace the car unless someone we knew wanted to sell us their equally old and reliable old car (which they did not). Going to a used car dealer in our newly determined price range would be a huge gamble . . . something I do not love.
The second problem was that I became very ill very suddenly. On Friday morning, I was fine and at work, but by 6:00 that night I was at the emergency room with pneumonia. It reminded me of my daughter’s ears, but lungs instead.
The pneumonia thing put me down for about a week and, as Friday rolled around yet again, I was well enough to return our beautiful rental car . . . the allotted time had expired. My crazy illness had delayed our insurance transaction and we didn’t even have a check yet. . . also, our middle daughter came home from school that day with an earache. Guess what . . . it also burst in the middle of the night before I could get her to a doctor.
Did I mention that the day I came home from the hospital, our front door lever decided not to work any more. It had been increasingly difficult to open, but this was the day it chose to quit completely. So, between taking care of me, my dear husband also had to replace the front door handle.
Right about now I would be happy with only two emergencies at a time!
During the following week we tried to search for a replacement car, but now my husband was feeling ill and our oldest also joined in with a sinus infection. On top of that, our other car began to exhibit strange behavior and weird noises. Even though this was our main family car and we were still paying on a loan, I would not classify it as “reliable”. But we had hoped it would last another year before the need to replace it . . .
As Friday rolled around, yet another time, we borrowed my mother-in-law’s truck, took our sick car to the shop, and headed out for some car shopping.
We found a car – made an offer – haggled a bit – didn’t reach an agreement. Then the call came in: metal in the oil . . . engine needs to be replaced . . . lots of dollars.
Throughout this month of “Fridays” I did not stress out or worry. To be sure, I thought we needed fewer items to deal with, but I was always confident that everything would work out and we would be fine . . . but not this time.
On this Friday, I went home in despair. Caleb said, “Hey, God has a plan. We just don’t know what it is yet.”
“Hmmmph!” (with eye roll)
After some pitiful wallowing time, I finally realized how ridiculous I was being. God had never failed us before. Why did I think all of a sudden He would let us down now? The bottom line is that I had to accept reality: We would have to replace the family car instead of the second car. We would have to use the insurance money to pay down the loan enough to roll it into a new loan on a (hopefully) more reliable car. We would be a one-car family for a while – maybe for a long while! And that is what I did not like and did not want to accept – thus the pouting.
As our oldest daughter was helping me drive our “money pit” to be traded in the next day, I mentioned that if we hadn’t had so much “stuff” to deal with, slowing us down (driving me crazy), we would have gotten the insurance money and replaced the second car weeks earlier. And then when our family car broke down, we would have still been left with only one car, but a much older, potentially unreliable car. She said, “Hmmm, it’s almost like there’s this sort of benevolent, all-knowing, all-powerful being that is directing everything that happens . . .”
“Yep, mmm-hmmm, good one.”
I guess I’ll have to take my own advice.
Matthew 6:25-34 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
