photo by me
–from My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers
So it’s Thursday and my goal for the day is to get my golf cart cleaned up and running. I haven’t driven it in about four months because my club won’t let you use your own cart on their course. But the granddaughters are spending the night on Friday, and they love to drive the golf cart. I’ve already checked it out and there’s a bunch of corrosion around the battery cables. I figure it will take me around an hour to clean up.
Whenever I begin any kind of DIY project, especially something mechanical, I should be aware that things will go wrong. This was a doozy. On the very first terminal, two of the electrical wire connections (not the battery cable) snap off. I go to Lowe’s to buy new connections—get the wrong ones—take them back…Lowe’s doesn’t have the right ones—go to Auto Zone—they carry them but are out of stock. The next Auto Zone has them. I’m over two hours into the project and I’ve completed one out of twelve terminals. I roll along. About an hour and a half later, I’m down to my last three terminals. Only on the next one, the battery cable is corroded and dissolves when I loosen the nut. I need a six inch battery cable and the shortest one Auto Zone carries is four feet—I settle for a 19 inch one from Walmart.
Of course, to put on a new cable, I have to remove both ends of the old one. I am introduced to the nut from hell. It is corroded and none of my socket wrenches fit. My 11 mm is too big and my 10 mm is too small. My finger is bleeding from messing with it. The YouTube video idea does not work. Karen comes out to see how I am doing. I glare at her. She has the wisdom to hurry back inside. I am beyond frustration.
I know I should pray (I bet Karen already has), but I don’t want to. Here’s why: nothing is going to move that damn nut, and so all praying will do is add frustration with God to my heaps of frustration with myself. But I have to pray because I am at the end of my resources: Lord, I am a mess. I know that my own neglect caused this situation. The golf cart can’t run if I can’t get that cable off. I don’t know what to do. Maybe the cart is meant to die here. Just help me to realize Your presence and know that You have everything under control.
Praying helped—I was calmer. I looked in my tool box and noticed a smaller socket that was not even a part of my set. I slipped it over my nut and it fit snugly. The nut and cable came off easily.
I know, I know—this is not a hokey story about how God magically put the right size socket into my tool box. It would not matter if my golf cart was still sitting in my garage, rotting. The real miracle is that He was able to restore me into a right relationship with Him. Mercy and grace and peace be unto me.
The bible says “You do not have because you do not ask.”
photo by me
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