“But in everything commending ourselves as servants of God, in as much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses;” -2 Corinthians 6:4 (NASB)
Recently my daughter and I drove to Indiana to pick up a horse trailer. I wanted to pick it up instead of delivery given that I had never pulled a trailer with my current vehicle and wanted to practice with an empty load. I didn’t sense a still small voice telling me to stay home even though I was having difficulty getting out the door before the trip. We were on a time crunch since the seller closed at 1:30.
The 3-hour drive began with an idea that we may not make it in time but what an adventure it would be with my special needs daughter in tow. We’d traveled many times together from state to state and once pulled a trailer from Florida to Ohio with “Grammie” as our traveling companion. How hard could this be? Right?
As we approached closer to our destination, I knew I needed to fill up the tank before hitching the trailer, but we kept getting further into rural America. Deep breathing, I kept asking God for a gas station. And behold, a little town with a little gas station appeared. We gassed up and drove the next 12 miles to hook up the trailer and get the lowdown on the trailer details. I’m not sure why God likes to do that at the last minute, because He created time and certainly, He likes to increase my faith.
Once hitched, a thought crept into my brain that this adventure was either courageous, stupid, or both. Then off we went via the same route we came with winding skinny roads, a narrow bridge, sharp turns, potholes, orange barrels, freeways, merges into traffic, train tracks, and now a train stopped on a country road in the middle of nowhere. Ten minutes passed then eleven.... then the reality that this train was not moving anytime soon sunk in and the only way out was to back up, avoid poles, ditches and turn on either of the two 90-degree angle roads behind me, recalculate on a navigator that likes to send one back to the same place one left during a detour.
I hadn’t planned this in my lesson. I had only backed a trailer once and I could see behind me using all the mirrors, and I only backed a few feet. So, down the road, I go (trailers don’t go straight for long, I found) aiming for one road and haphazardly backed to the opposite road. Now we have a pole within inches of the trailer, a rut with mud, and an “Oh what now?” moment. So, I sat there for a minute sighing and rehearsing my next move and I looked over to a man standing by who instructed me, “Turn left, turn right, pull forward, back up” while mud and stones were pelting him. We are now free! He instructed me how to get to the main road, and by the first turn, I forgot what he said my mind had left me at the train tracks. Now I have a GPS that wants to take me back there, so I ignore it. But we forge ahead in an area that is deeply rural and under construction and doesn’t look promising and behold through my doubt and forgetfulness, we made it to the main road. I did look at the GPS then and it had worked. But we have trust issues. By the time we made it home, the tank was nearly empty and we blocked yet another traffic area because the trailer wouldn’t come off the hitch. God provided just the right people to help.
I concluded that nothing went wrong that day. It was a crash course with the reality of trailers and me as the driver. I had an open mind about a lesson, it was a bit more than I thought. Life is like this, each day we have lessons, some easy some hard. But God’s Spirit is with us, guiding, and encouraging us in the struggle. A good instructor won’t always give easy assignments. Trust that God knows what He wants to do for you and through You, for His purpose and glory.
Heavenly Father, thank You for Your help not only with others showing up but with my attitude and teaching me about keeping fixed on You at all times whether pleasant or distressing. May we see that You are our strength when our emotions are processing bad news, pain, challenges, and all the ups and downs in life.
This devotion by author, Terrie Miles, is exclusively and solely shared with permission to New Beginnings Church. Any unauthorized printed reproduction, sharing, or use of this material is prohibited.
Proverbs 3:5-6.... Or our GPS
In His time, according to His will....... not our circumstances!