God's Plan Not Ours

I’ve tried many new things recently (some that may surprise some of you).  My dad’s been back in Illinois (since moving to Texas) for work, and he’s been staying with my Grandma and me at my grandma’s house.  While I was riding with him one day, he took me through the Starbucks drive-thru and got us both a drink.   It occurred to me that I just drank my First Starbucks coffee!   Two days later he bought me another one. 

I also had my first experience of a car breaking down on the side of the road (a previous post) … and more….

My dad and I were planning to leave for Texas Monday at 1:00pm.  I was planning to pick him up at work in the truck (which just had to have it’s shocks replaced) and we would drive till midnight, stop at a hotel and then drive the remainder of the trip on Tuesday (the whole trip is 14 hours).  However, as often seems to happen, that didn’t happen.  My alarm clock (my iPod) died during the night so I got up 2-3 hours later than I had planned, thus pushing the time I picked up my dad until around 2:00pm. 

Strange thing happened.  Shortly after I pulled away from my grandma’s house till I picked up my dad an hour later, I felt my spirit urged to pray in the Spirit for a reason I didn’t know.  A few minutes out from picking up my dad I heard a loud “Bang” from the truck, but I didn’t think anything of it since I didn’t see nor feel anything.  When I got to my dad’s work about 5 minutes later, the front tire was completely flat.  So I am assuming that God spoke to me to pray in the Spirit protection over me so that I wouldn’t lose control over the truck when the tire blew out and that the truck wouldn’t be hurt by it.  Praise God!  So with my dad and his friend, Justin Koch, we worked to fix the tire.  We tried to get the spare out and after much unsuccessful work concluded that the fixture holding the spare was stripped and we would have to cut the cable sometime.   So Justin and my dad worked really hard to get the bolts off the tire, but one bold didn’t want to loosen in any sort of way.  So after, having engineering minds, got long poles, tools and many other things really started to work with it. 

Oh yeah, grandma, those old World Books and Dictionary that we thought weren’t worth much at all were really put to some good use, they were used as a leverage point and a large block of wood (they are now in the garbage since they were covered with grease by the end).   Justin then drove home quickly to get some tools and some jacks. My dad wanted while we were at it to get both front tires replaced since the other front tire needed it.  So he called Tremont Oil and they had two new tires ready.  We jacked up the car and really worked hard to get the tires off (we had to unload a lot of the truck to get some of the tools).  We then put the tires in Justin’s other car and took them to Tremont Oil.  Then we went over to Miller Automotive to pay them for replacing the shocks, then we came back and got the new tires.   After putting the tires back on the truck we headed off and dropped off Justin’s car at his house, then went to Miller Automotive again to have them cut the Spare Tire holder.  When they looked at it they said we were just using the tool wrong and it worked perfectly.   So at last, more than 3.5 hours after we had originally planned, we headed off for Texas.  We were hopping to make it 6-7 hours yet into the night before stopping. 

Yet again, as things tend to go, that did not happen to its full extent.  We were making really good time, and were really happy that we might actually be able to make it further before stopping.  But… 3-4 hours into the trip the truck broke down in the middle of the Interstate.  After spending about a half an hour trying to diagnose the problem, we concluded that the Drive Line was loose.  We could drive it, but no more than about 2mph before it made unhealthy noises and vibrated a lot.  So through much trouble (there was very, very little cell service here) we called State Farm Road Side Assistance and they lined up the nearest tow truck to tow us to a good mechanic and a hotel.   It took about 90 minutes for the tow truck to get to us (come to find out he was the closest tow truck in the area, and he drove 90 minutes to get to us – he covers a very large area in his work).  When we unloaded the truck from the tow truck we backed it into a spot in the mechanic's parking lot.  However as we did this the Drive Line completely snapped.... So by the time we got to the hotel it’s midnight, and were only three and a half hours into the 14 hour trip.   Sigh….. things just aren’t going as planned… God what are you doing????  He has some plan that we cannot see.   Who knows…… God does.  

The Tow Truck driver, Johnny, was a believer and we had a short talk with him.  Something that really stuck out to me that he said (and I will quote him on it) when people tell/ask him if he has religion or he’s religious, he replies, “I don’t have a religion, I have a relationship.”   He was telling us that about 85% of his time is spent in the cab of his tow truck, and he spends much of it talking to God.  He easily and confidently was able to say that his relationship with God was great.  In that way, I am jealous of him.  He gets more time than most to just sit and talk with God on a daily basis.  Praise God.