Remember the earlier post about mosquitoes? The precipitating event was my car breaking down while I was driving it. Well, it happened again last night. The car that is, not the mosquitoes. This time, it didn't restart, and I had to cool my heels (literally) for nearly 2 1/2 hours waiting for a tow. (Fortunately, Bob managed to arrive about an hour into the ordeal, so I got to sit in a sorta warm car for the second half of the wait.)
Well, I know a lot of people who try to superimpose God's hand on everything. I'm not one of them, but I kinda like the mental exercise involved with that line of thinking, so what would last night be saying about me and about God? Hmmmm...
God's pissed at me -- While I have no doubt the almighty has a bone or two to pick with me, I don't think the punishment would be meted out via a decrepit Saturn. Not enough symbolism.
God wants me to be more thoughtful -- Uh, I dunno. I do tend to find the cheapest alternative out there and live with the consequences. I buy the cheapest house on the market when I'm looking and live with the repair bills. (But I also don't have any real fears of not being able to make my mortgage payments which are awfully low.) I take cheap vacations and while I don't have the cushy seats on the plane or the fluffiest comforter, I manage to get to my intended locale and sleep reasonably well. So it's the cars. Yeah, I suck at buying cars. But I don't know how much more thoughtfulness would play in. I've had more luck with my impulse bargain purchases than the ones I've researched. I take pretty good care of my cars, yet as Bob gleefully points out, he gets an oil change about twice a year, and he's had relatively few problems. Maybe instead of being too thoughtful in the car department, I over think it. But then, I have to go back to wondering why God would give a monkey's butt about my decision making process for car purchases.
God wants me to know I have friends -- Maybe. I certainly am fortunate to have a spouse who was willing to drop what he was doing and drive out to keep me company during my long, dark wait. This isn't the first time he's come to my rescue. Not only is he a good spouse, he's a good friend. That's cool and maybe I needed to be reminded of it. Maybe. Then, after more than two hours in the car, on a fluke, I turned on my Palm Pilot and scanned for a wifi signal. Darned if there wasn't a pretty decent signal. So I posted a note on Facebook and got a number of responses to my comment and even a couple of notes in my in box. There was a lot of kidding, but also some concern. I most certainly wasn't fishing for reinforcement that I have friends, but it was nice to be reminded of it. So God takes an active role in making sure I know I have friends? Not so sure. It's not like I was down and could really use a morale boost. I was simply trying to go home and have a bite to eat. So, I ended up a little hungry, but not in a state of despair. It seems to me that God would be more concerned for those who are hopeless and in real need to give that reminder. Seems like a bit of squandered grace to me.
But, maybe that's the point. I willy nilly purchase cars, sometimes with great thought and care and it doesn't pan out. Other times, on a whim I make a purchase that seems like it's squandering money only to find later on that it worked out pretty well in the long run. Is there a connection? Who's to say what's a squandered effort, anyway? Maybe there's something to be said for throwing caution to the wind. Maybe I should over-think that for a while.
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