This is not solely for newly weds, but also for anyone else!
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials
of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces
perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature
and complete, not lacking anything." (Jas 1:2-4, NIV2)
"A happy
heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit." (Prov
15:13, NIV2)
After work this week, I stepped into my car as
normal to drive back home; however, no matter what I did, the stick
shift refused to budge. Weird! What was I supposed to do?
I
called the Volkswagen dealer to see if they could help me. They gave me
some pointers, but in the end, they concluded that there was a
possibility the transmission was shot. Not what you want to hear at any
time, but especially not when your car is only eight months old! In the
end, they sent me a tow truck that would be arriving within the next 45
minutes.
It was raining, and my workplace was now closed. It
would have been easy for me to fret, like I did in my younger years.
Instead, I concluded that this was a blessing. I was behind in writing
down what my Heavenly Father had done for me these last couple of weeks,
so I wrote and wrote, and the time flew as if I was on a supersonic
fighter plane.
When I finished, I had only ten minutes left to
wait for the tow truck. Not too bad! Then my phone rang and someone from
the tow truck company told me: "Sir, the tow truck is with your car." I
was a bit puzzled as I was in my car, and there was no tow truck in
sight. I started to laugh then. "It must be a tiny tow truck, because I
can't see it."
"Where are you, sir?"
"In my car!"
You could tell she was confused. When the tow truck finally showed up, I
learned it had gone to a different parking place.
The driver was
super nice and quite professional. He told me, however, that this was
the fourth time he had towed a Volkswagen in the last 6 months. "You buy
a new car so that you won't have technical problems, but Volkswagen
certainly doesn't know how to make stick shifts!"
Interestingly
enough, that dampened my mood. "Really! This is completely absurd! Why
would they do such a thing!" Still I decided to remain positive.
He dropped me off at home, which was kind, because otherwise I would
have found myself stranded at the car dealer, with no ride back home.
The next day I received the diagnoses: "The culprit was squirrels!"
"Squirrels?"
Apparently they had hidden about 25 huge pine
cones in the vicinity of my transmission. The service department at the
VW dealership even saved me the bag full of pine cones! I started to
laugh, and I couldn't help but share this with many of my colleagues and
students. The next day I even brought the bag of pine cones to work: all
142$ worth of them!
I wondered if the other 3 Volkswagens that
had been towed faced the same problem. The thought was truly hilarious.
My wife, too, got a kick out of the news: "Squirrels? Really?" And
she, too, brought the bag to her workplace to share the story.
It
would have been easy to focus on the negative. After all, I had lost two
hours of time, then I had to go about 50 kms the next day to retrieve my
car. I could go on and on, but all I would have succeeded in doing so is
making everyone in my vicinity miserable. No way!
Truly, I had
fun waiting for that tow truck. I caught up on all my devotionals, the
tow truck driver was nice, and we had a good time in the cab. However,
the most hilarious part was when I found out about the origin of my
troubles: Squirrels! That was way too funny!
In marriage, we will
face adversity. We will either dwell on the negative and make everyone,
including our spouse, feel miserable, or we will dwell on the positive
side and take our trials with a smile. One will drive us apart, the
other will bring us closer than ever. What would we prefer?
By
the way, I park my car on the street now, far away from these trees that
have pine cones! You can have my spot at the parking lot, if you like!
Rob Chaffart
