Since we just have one car right now, my knight in shining armor had to ask a friend at our weekly Send Out Cards meeting, https://www.sendoutcards.com/cgi-bin/trncustomer.pl?more_info::, for a ride to come rescue me.
At Sonic, I restarted the car, and got down the highway a few more miles, when it quit again ~ and this time, it would not restart. Stuck in the 85+ degree heat, on the side of the road across from a corn field, I had to wait for my husband an hour to get there because we live out in the boondocks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boondock.
It was during this time of waiting in the climbing heat that I asked God, "Lord, what do you want me to learn from this?"
Stuck by a cornfield in the heat God was silent. As I sat there, a minor wreck happened on the highway near me. Oh good, a diversion. I watched as a firetruck and other emergency vehicles came to the scene, and traffic backed up to a crawl. People passed by me in their cars, staring, never asking me if I needed help.
One police woman who worked in the area came up beside me in her unmarked car, and asked if I was involved in the accident. I told her no, but I was waiting on my husband to come get me because my car had broken down. She said, "Okay, hon," and pulled over on the side of the road a few feet ahead of me. Nothing like a little compassion and going out of your way for someone, is there?
She got out of her car, put on her gun belt with exaggerated importance, and immediately began questioning the people involved in the scene. She didn't even offer to let me sit in her nice, air-conditioned car as I was waiting! I looked at my arm on the steering wheel, and saw little beads of sweat forming on my skin. Glancing in the rear-view mirror, I saw that my face was red, too. Visions of me passing out from dehydration, and concerned emergency workers putting me on a stretcher, came to mind. The people who had passed me by in their cars without offering help would be sorry then!
So thankful for my cold drink, I chomped ice and watched the way one police officer directed traffic in his orange vest, and I called Ray to let him know that traffic coming toward me was slow because of an accident. "I'll be there in 15 minutes," were his famous, last words.
By the time Ray arrived 30 minutes later, I had read some of my Toastmasters' book first chapter, checked my voice mail and text messages on my cell phone, had taken pictures of the accident scene in sheer boredom, cleaned out my purse, and was now studying cloud shapes...getting closer to fainting every minute. The emergency vehicles and tow truck were gone. The female officer indifferent to me overheating was still talking with the people involved in the wreck, making her case.
I got into the back of our friend Herb's car, and sighed in relief - ahhh, cold a-c! The tow truck driver whom Ray called arrived promptly, and hauled off the car to the nearest garage. We stopped at the store for water, and soon I was at home, hydrated again and resting, watching the hilarious movie Oscar http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102603/ with Ray and our daughter Leah.
Tonight as I was listening to A Woman Inspired 2009 conference on internet marketing http://www.awomaninspiredconference.org/get-revived-09/, one of the speakers encouraged women to use their blogs to share the good news of Jesus Christ. Remembering my day by the cornfield in the heat, the scripture John 12:23-25 (NKJV) came to mind. The Greeks had heard of Jesus and came to his disciple Philip to ask to speak with him.
Jesus replied, "The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and He who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life."
Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone...if it dies, it produces much grain.
Yes, this was what God wanted me to learn today, I thought. Dying to self - which is never easy. Producing much grain for God. Jesus increasing in me, and I decreasing. Being concerned with the furtherance of His kingdom here on earth and the harvest of souls. It's all about Him - Jesus, Lord and King.
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