Renée and I recently traveled down to Florida to visit my dad, stepmom, and her parents. On the way, we stopped in Charlottesville, VA, to see our son Jared and daughter-in-law Stephanie. It’s a long drive – 2,700 miles roundtrip. We left after church on Sunday and stopped about ten hours later at a Cracker Barrel in Virginia for dinner. Afterward, we gassed up and got back on the road. It was dark. The roads were unlit and winding, but we were excited to almost be there.
We never saw what it was, but some debris was left in the road, which we ran over with a thump. I was concerned about a flat tire. But that never happened. Praise God! We pulled into the English Inn of Charlottesville about 10:00 pm. After checking in at the front desk we went back to retrieve our luggage and park the car. That’s when Renée saw it. Gasoline was pouring out of our gas tank. Not a drip. A steady stream leaking out. What do we do? It’s ten o’clock on a Sunday night. We’re supposed to continue on to Florida tomorrow morning. Needless to say, neither of us got a lot of sleep that night. Early Monday morning we called a local garage to see if they could help and drove the car over. I was running on fumes the entire full tank had leaked onto the pavement.
We dropped off the car. Decided to get a rental at the airport and headed for the sunshine state. Hours later somewhere in Georgia as I was driving in the left lane of a two-lane highway, brakes lights appeared ahead of me. What I thought was a slow down quickly became a full stop. I braked, looking in my rear-view mirror praying that the SUV behind me wouldn’t hit me. The lady was on it and veered off to my left and onto the grass in order to miss me. Sadly, the car behind her stopped too fast and Renée and I heard a loud crunch as she was rear-ended by a truck.
The rest of the trip was free of danger, and we had a nice visit with our parents. Unfortunately, a call from the garage informed us the gas tank could not be repaired but had to be replaced and the part wouldn’t arrive until Tuesday or Wednesday the following week. Unfortunately, this caused us to have to extend our stay by four extra days. The total cost of the tank repair, car rental, and hotel rooms was over $3,500. This was much more than we had budgeted. We finally rolled into Wethersfield at 10:00 pm on Wednesday night.
Now the Bible says, “Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). We were being tested for sure. It was a stressful not to mention expensive trip. However, just as Renée and I were beginning a pity party it hit us. We can choose to look at the glass as half-full or half-empty. We chose to remember our cup runneth over. We are blessed! Yes, a punctured gas tank is expensive but it’s also dangerous. Any spark or flame could have ignited our car and literally exploded. We drove for two hours unaware of the danger leaking out underneath us. We were still able to visit with our parents in Florida and even had extra time with our son and daughter-in-law. Praise God!
Yes, it was expensive but although we don’t have a lot of money, we do have great credit and were able to repair the car, rent a car, and pay for extra hotel stays. Thank God for Mastercard and Visa. It is not lost on us that I know plenty of people who would have been truly stranded without the means to do any of this.
My dad, stepmom, and in-laws are all doing well. Our son Jared and daughter-in-law Stephanie are as well. We are indeed blessed. Our cups runneth over!
When it seems all is falling down around you. Remember your cup runneth over too! If we really took the time to reflect, we would spend far more time counting our blessings then listing our challenges. My friends, “Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).
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Remember you can email praise reports and prayer requests to southchurchprayer@gmail.com. I lift them up every Wednesday at 4:00 pm on Facebook Live.