Jump Start

The need to jump starting your car is not often viewed as a blessing.

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A few days ago, my son asked me for help in getting his car home from the mall. It’s an old car and was refusing to start.  The car is “Just something to get him through until he joins the Air Force,” he says. So, it’s no surprise that it wakes up fussy just like I do once in a while.

As I go to start my car to drive to the mall to try to start my son’s car, all I get is a couple of clicks and faint lights that indicate that my battery is almost dead. I run back inside and grabbed the keys to our van that my wife typically drives. We drive over to the mall and try a work around to the problem that has worked in the past. No luck. One of those days, right?

Not wanting the car to be towed away, we decide it we’ll have to get it home where repairs can be handled a bit later. This means towing the car ourselves. I mentioned to my son that we’ll need to borrow a tow rope or most likely buy one.

I dropped my son at work and drove back home to jump start my car, hoping it was as simple as a drained battery.

The batteries on the two vehicles are on opposite sides — the wrong opposite sides, I might add. I’ll need to back the van up the driveway to get the jumper cables to reach. But there is ice on the driveway from a recent snow storm and I can’t back up the driveway without risking sliding into my car. Sigh . . . I start scraping.

Twenty minutes later I back van up the driveway. I pull the emergency kit out of the back of the van. I know there are jumper cables in the kit. To my surprise, I noticed there was also a tow rope in the kit. I smile, knowing this would simplify things.

Later that evening when I pick up my son and report that I’d gotten a friend to help me tow his car home, he was quick to comment that it sure was lucky that my battery died. If it hadn’t we’d have probably gone out and bought a tow rope.

I immediately realized that my son’s observation was significant. What started out as frustrating turned out to be a series of ‘blessings’ — Little doses of good things that turned out to be just what I needed. The 20 minutes of exercise was invigorating. Discovering the tow rope qualified as one of those easy-to-miss joys that I’m glad I didn’t miss. My son noticing the beauty in the way things worked out gave me hope for him.

Why didn’t I get frustrated as I have so many times in the past? Why didn’t I let frustration and impatient brew into a strong cup of resentment? A big part of it was my choice to take a few deep breaths and look for the positives. This is not my natural way. But, God has been leading me to the right books, the right verses of scripture as of lately. Thankfully, I’ve done just enough listening to allow Him to help me see His hand.  Had I not to listen and to watch, the serendipitous details of the day would have gone unnoticed or at least unappreciated.

Do I really believe that all things work together for our good? (Romans 8:28) Yes I do, and as I watch for evidence of this divine pattern in my life I find positivity quietly waiting to be noticed, like the quiet, humble friend it is.