I'm sure many of you will be able to empathize with me on this statement ... I detest having issues with my car. Even when it's something minor like the tire pressure light coming on when the weather gets cold and all I need to do is put air in my tires. That happened Monday and I took care of it ... I wasn't happy about standing in the cold trying to get the little air thingy on the little spout thingy on the tires, but I did it. And the fact that I just used the word "thingy" twice to describe putting air in my tires should tell you that I know little to nothing about car maintenance or repair. Thus you can only imagine my immeasurable joy when I went to get in my car this morning to go to work and it wouldn't start ... wouldn't even click or groan or light up or ding at me or anything ... it was just as dead as a doornail, as Mom used to say.
I spent the next hour and a half doing the following things: waking one of my neighbors to see if she could help me jump the battery (she did, in her robe and slippers on a morning when it was cold enough to see our breath inside of my garage), driving to the car shop, waiting while they installed a new battery, handing over money that I hadn't planned on spending on my stupid car, getting to work late ... truly a lovely way to start the day. I really, really, really detest having issues with my car ... really.
As I was sitting in the lobby of the car shop waiting this morning, I remembered that last night when I left church, my car was a little sluggish when I turned the key to start it. I remembered saying out loud, "Well that doesn't sound too good." But I also remembered turning the car off and on two or three times when I got home, and it started just fine. I suppose I should have paid more attention to my car's sluggish start last night ... obviously, the battery was dying and I should have noticed. Then I began to wonder if the car had been sluggish in starting for a while and I just didn't pick up on it ... I wondered how long my car's battery had been slowly losing its power.
The more I thought throughout the day about my car, the more I began to realize how much I'm like the battery. And the more I thought about how much I'm like the battery ... the more I realized how ... much ... I'm ... like ... the ... battery. And here's the thing ... for a while, the battery on my car would hold enough charge to keep my car running. But when it finally couldn't generate any power anymore, the car wouldn't turn on and I had no choice but to buy a new battery. No matter what I tried this morning, my car wouldn't start until my neighbor used her car to share its power with mine. I could have sat there all day trying to start my car under my own power, and it never would have started ... and had I driven to work after my neighbor helped me and turned the car off, it wouldn't have started at the end of the day. Nothing I could do would fix my car except getting a new battery, which gave me pause to ponder something else ... even a new battery wouldn't have caused my car to start unless it was installed correctly and the proper cables were attached.
"To this end also we pray for you always, that our God will count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ." 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12
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