Day 38

 Some car related things happened this week.  When something unusual happens ( esp during Lent and Advent) I'm always on the look out to see if God is saying something.  I'm not sure what He might be saying through this but sometimes as I type it out I begin to see what it is..... so here goes.

On Tuesday I was driving into Lisburn to work and as I came round a corner I saw two cars which had obviously been in a prang.  There were two lads wearing school uniform standing beside one car and a bloke in dark clothes talking to them with his phone in his hand.  Something in me made me stop to see if the boys were OK.  Not because I thought they were injured in any way, but because I know how irate some people can get about their cars and I wanted to ascertain that the other guy was being reasonable and that the lads didn't just need another adult on the scene.  I jumped out and asked if everything was OK.  The boys said yes.  There was an R plate on the windscreen of their car ( indicating that the driver had only recently passed his test )  They said the damage wasn't too bad.  The other guy didn't say anything and went to get in his car.  I presume they had swapped details and both cars were clearly drivable.  I went on my way thinking about how bad that teen driver would be feeling and how much his already exorbitant insurance would go up if the other guy made a claim.  Of course I was assuming the teenagers had been at fault.  They might not have been.

On Wednesday I was again on my way to work when I drove past an empty car on the hard shoulder.  Two hundred yards further on a woman was walking up the road.  I pulled in and offered her a lift.  It was freezing cold and she had a way to walk before the road actually led anywhere.  She got in and I asked about the car.  She was foreign, possibly Philippino and her English wasn't great but she said she was going to work in a factory up the road.  She said it took her an hour and ten minutes to walk - and it started to dawn on me that maybe it hadn't been her car on the hard shoulder.! I think perhaps she walks an hour to work every day.    When she got out of my car it was snowing and I watched her as she stood and lifted both arms, as if in worship.  I guess she doesn't get to see snow where she comes from. It was a little moment of joy in her day - and in mine. 

I got home yesterday to find a new car in the drive.  Not new, but new to me.  Possibly.  Its there for me to take for a spin and see if it might be my next car.  God has told me to get rid of the current car and this time I'm determined to do so.  Last time He told me that I needed to trade my car I didn't, and a whole world of repairs and problems ensued which cost me a fortune.  So this time I'm going to listen and get another car.  We are very blessed to have a car guy renting one of the sheds on the farm.  He fixes up insurance right-offs.  (And they right a car off for the most ridiculous things these days.)  So hopefully I'll have new wheels soon.  Reliable ones.

So thats a prang, a breakdown and a new car all in the space of three days.   And I have no idea if there is anything spiritual to glean from this at all.  Any thoughts...?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 6 who cares about us?!

Image
 I have no idea if my experience is 'normal' or not.  But Ive moved churches a few times in the past 25 years and each time Ive found it harder to make properly deep and meaningful friendships.   Maybe I was spoiled in my youth by having been blessed with a few ' soul mates'.  Those long lasting, tell-all, do-or-die, give you a kidney if you need one friendships are probably mostly made in our teens and twenties.  Dont get me wrong, Ive still got those precious soul mates in my life.  Its just that these days they are miles away and as busy as I am and they arent at the coffee bar at the end of a Sunday service ready to pray with me or chew over the issues of the day. As time has gone on my definition of church has shifted somewhat.  It used to be that my church consisted of those people who went to the same sunday service and housegroup as me.  Nowadays I know that my church consists not only of those people, but of a whole raft of other chr...
Read more

Day 8 Parents

Image
 Isnt God just so kind? Over the last few years I have lost my Dad, my Mum and more recently my lovely step-mum.  My Mum was definitely not a Christian for most of her days.   My Dad and his wife went to church regularly but I never was able to quite fathom what Dad believed.  He liked liturgy, didnt have much time for sermons. I got the feeling that church for him was a cultural habit rather than anything living and active - but I couldn't be sure.   I didn't see much evidence of the fruit of the spirit in either parent - but I'm also aware that people looking at my life from the outside might not see much fruit either, so I opted not to judge and to leave in to Jesus to decide their ultimate eternal fate.   Dad died during covid.  I wasn't with him.  I spoke to him on the phone a few days before he died and I cant honestly remember if I asked him to promise me he would go with Jesus.  He was on a morphine pump at the end of h...
Read more

Day 3

Image
 On Ash Wednesday there was a short evening service at our church.  I went.  I wasnt in the best of moods and I sat there wondering what it was all about.  The songs we sang, the liturgy and the prayers.  Then the rather odd ( to my thinking) being marked with a cross on the forehead with ashes.  Communion and then singing and home again.   I spent most of the time wondering if this is what God was wanting or requiring of us.   And the rest feeling guilty for even thinking these things. I find myself in this headspace more and more these days.  Gone is the unquestioning, faithfully following, endlessly saying yes, ways of my youth.  For decades I have been to church, tried to be helpful, listened to the voice of the Holy Spirit as much as Ive been able to, served, participated...... and I think right now Im just a bit weary of it all.   And sometimes I wonder if God is a bit weary of it all too. 😊 Dont get me wrong. ...
Read more