Write His Answer

Yesterday we picked up 7,000 brochures for the Colorado Christian Writers Conference from the printer. About 30 miles from home our 2002 van started bucking and losing power. We were near an exit and managed to pull into a gas station – a gas station with no mechanic! A clerk told Paul where to find gas stations with garages, but they were the opposite direction from home.

Amazingly, as we waited for a break in traffic, our van seemed to revive. (Yes, I was praying!) We decided to try to make it home. The speedometer bounced back and forth like a deranged gauge, but the van moved forward without a lurch and kept moving until we pulled into our driveway.

This morning our mechanic is trying to find the problem that appears to have disappeared. Father, please show him what’s wrong and how to fit it – reasonably.

It’s been a ridiculously expensive year so far. We needed a new heater/AC/heat pump. That cost $12,000. Then a pipe froze. It cost $550 to repair. And the ice storm earlier this week damaged four of our huge oak trees. It will cost $1,660 to remove the broken limbs.

Problems – expensive problems – are groupies! Seriously, when was the last time you were confronted with only one problem?  And how did you respond? Did you follow the Apostle Paul’s example and praise God or did you grumble?

We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit! — Romans 5:3-5 MSG

I admit more often than not I grumble. I prefer to avoid those things that test my patience even though I know God is able to use them to grow me spiritually. I just wish the process was easier and quicker.

But I’m choosing to trust Him – to “let him have all [my] worries and cares, for he is always thinking about [me] and watching everything that concerns [me]” (1 Peter 5:7 TLB).

What about you?