Using the Wrong Planner

“Bam! Screeeechhh…”

My sunny bluegrass jam session was abruptly interrupted. The red Honda Civic convulsed and then shuddered as metal grated on blacktop. We obviously hadn’t hit any ordinary ice chunk. For all I knew, my infallible little car had struck the fatal iceberg, giving me only seconds to abandon ship. Uneasily, I glided the car to a stop on the icy shoulder of the freeway and clicked on the hazard lights. 

After a semi roared past, I jumped out and ran around to the back. Crouching, I cocked my head just past the recognizable bumper and exhaust pipe to the land of unknowns. What on God’s green earth is that?! 

No gushing oil, no smoke, no dripping coolant—only a bizarre hook of metal dangling from the underbody. It was tangled with what appeared to be a black cable.

Dialing home, I tried not to panic. This adventure definitely wasn’t written in my planner. My parents were 60 miles away. I was 15 miles from Bemidji and in arm’s reach of Cass Lake—a very sketchy place to be stranded. I was supposed to work in less than hour.

Momentarily persuaded that the car wasn’t about to detonate, I slipped back into the driver’s seat and took a call from my dad. He had received my picture texts. “I have no clue what that part is…”

I glanced up to see my rearview mirror transform into a flashing pinwheel of red and blue. “Dad, I’ll call you back later.” I clicked my phone shut and inflated my lungs, trying to collect my wits.

It was a sheriff.

“Everything okay here?”

No, no it’s not. “Well, sort of…” I gave him a brief run-down. The unruffled officer took a look for himself. “Sure, I’m no motor-head, but I have no clue what that is. It looks like there’s wire in there, so it might be an electrical thing. You could try to take it easy and get to Bemidji, or call a tow truck.”

Death by incineration, or by towing fiascos? Hm.

“Is there a service station nearby?” I questioned. “Yeah, just about a mile back,” he jerked his chin, “in the middle of town. They could tell you if it needs immediate attention. ”

It was worth a shot. I bravely rattled the red car down the freeway, the sheriff dutifully following. As I took a left turn, the rattling suddenly stopped. Uh-oh. Looking back, I saw the sheriff get out of his car to pick up the detached piece of metal. Things were getting serious now. Turn at the second stoplight, drive four blocks, come to a four-way stop. Turn…drive…

We rolled into a rinky-dink service station that looked like it had time-traveled from the ‘60s. There was no time to analyze the ancient petrol pumps and gaudy signs, however. The sheriff pulled the glass door back and I marched through, clutching the mysterious car part to my pea coat.

The huddle of men in plaid shirts surrounding the greasy counter parted like startled crows. They eyed me and my ridiculous trophy with curiosity. “This thing fell off her car,” explained the sheriff, “and we were wondering if it’s important and needs to be fixed right away.”

“Ricky’s the guy for that!” One of the spectators gestured to a short, hefty man with sharp brown eyes.

I handed the part to “Ricky”, who was clearly king of this establishment. We all leaned in expectantly as Ricky rotated the piece in his stained hands. He massaged the stubble along his square jawline. “Yep, I know what this is,” he chuckled. “Lady, this ain’t no car part.”

While I didn’t count on having that disruption in my day, it didn’t take God by surprise. In fact, He planned it. Not only did He provide the help I needed, I still made it to work on time, with the bonus of a hilarious souvenir.  (It was a sort of cable holder used on houses that had somehow gotten snarled in the car’s underbody.)

It’s too easy to react in fear and anger when life’s frustrations hit. But a child of God doesn’t have to! “We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28, NASB) We can know that God is sovereign and uses all things for His purposes. Verses 31- 39 of Romans 8 get even better: 

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?... But in all these things [the worst curveballs life can throw!] we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

If God never acts outside of His perfect love, I'd say His planner is a little more accurate than mine.