Blue Belle Blessings

What a blessing a broken car can be.

My car has been in and out of the repair shop for the last month. It has actually spent more time at the shop than in my driveway. I am thankful that the Lord has provided me alternative transportation while I wait for the repairs to be completed. However, I have been so blessed by how I have gotten to witness the change he has wrought in me. Not once during this entire time have I gotten angry. This is not my nature. 
"When a problem comes around, you must bend it to your will or destroy it."  - Todd from days past.

I have always been a man of extremes. Feast or famine. All in or all out. Full speed or sound asleep. Burn the candle at both ends or enjoy the darkness...


God has been using this car to demonstrate the extremes. Even the problems it was having are a matter of extremes. When it started it sounded like a thousand sparrows on gerbil wheels trying to take flight. Once it got up to speed and warmed up the engine would go back to normal sounds. However, as I move it up to highway speed and new sound like steel balls on a grindstone would start coming up from the driver's side wheel. It was rather unnerving of an experience to drive that car. 

However, the Lord was my Shepard and there were no outward appearance of issues, no rattle, and no shimmy. So, being far from home and with a promised companion to assure safe delivery, I turned over the trip into His hands and relied upon Him to get us both safely home. 


The Lord was faithful and that ride home was a true blessing. We both got to share how God was working in our lives and experience His faithfulness together. 


I can report now the root cause of the car troubles. First, the bird sounds was cause by the new serpentine belt that was from the wrong manufacturer. It was fine to be in the car, but cheap and prone to making those bird sounds. It would have worn out much sooner than the quality belt that was ordered. They are replacing that. The grinding noise was caused by the flap that directs the air around the tire. When they replaced the axle, someone didn't fasten that back properly and when it got to highway speeds the flap would rub against the tire. So these great big problems that sounded like a car was going to fall apart were nothing more than empty noises, signifying nothing. My friend and I were never at any risk during the trip. 

This is how Christ meets us. God is the only true mechanic, and when we see things that happen in our life, we are prone to respond like its the end of the world. Yet if we trust in our Mechanic, then we know he would never put us on the road with a faulty life. Sometimes he gives us those warning sounds to let us know that we need to keep the engine running and go at his pace. Not so slow that we never get where He is leading us and not to fast that we overrun His plan for our lives. He leads us as the good Shepard, prodding us when we need to move and hooking us to pull us back to His flock. 

Thank you Lord for the blessing of faulty cars.