911 call: “Please send help. I’ve locked myself in my car.”.
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No, that didn’t happen, but Saturday night we went to a friend’s house for dinner and we locked the keys in the car. The spare key was in Mrs. Craver’s purse… in the car.
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We couldn’t get it open until the next day. For me, it was a time to learn patience and perseverance.
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Growing is not always fun. This was definitely not my choice of curriculum, but the Teacher is always good and never wrong.
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It began snowing the very moment we realized what happened. Big, fluffy snowflakes, and they were all laughing at me.
I’ve opened doors with a coat hanger before, but this time it was especially difficult. Patience matters, and I tried to be patient, but then, the big snowflakes turned to sleet, and a stiff wind made the sleet feel like ice-darts on my face. That stuff hurts! Soon afterward, my shoes, cap and gloves were soaked, and I was freezing.
Frozen and frustrated, I mumbled that a Christian man’s vocabulary doesn’t have the words I wanted to express at that time. My buddy asked whether I had prayed. (Ouch, conviction.) No, I hadn’t. Shortly after that, we ran out of daylight. (Why, God?) I just couldn’t get a break that night.
Now that you have gone through this experience, what do you think God was trying to teach you? What lesson have you learned?
Hmmm… What did God give me through this agony?
Let’s see, I have already mentioned patience and perseverance. Yeah, there was great lab time for that with the hanger, the cold and a “theft-proof” design on the door. It wasn’t all bad, because I learned a new trick to breaking into my own car.
But there were other benefits:
There were friends who helped me. One guy came out with a kerosene heater while I was freezing my tookus. And Mrs. Craver was calm and reassuring while I secretly fantasized about putting a shovel through the window.
I realized that I was under a lot of stress because of things that I should have delegated, and someone’s failure to pull their fair share had me wrestling with bitterness.
Okay, now you know way too much about what was going on in my head, because the other benefit, of course, was blog fodder. :-)
I find that whenever I'm really learning something, I'm not a big fan of the curriculum. Why IS that?
Also:
I tend to always make the same mistake at least twice. In a row. One summer, I locked myself out of my car twice (even the cops couldn't break into it, although one of them tried to hit on me), locked myself out of the guest room of a friend's house where all my travel belongings were ("We don't ever use the lock on that door!") and locked myself out of my parents' house. While my parents were away for a week's vacation. And I was wearing 1830's attire because I worked at a living history museum.
Here's a word to insert into your vocabulary for moments like that: "inconvenient". I learned that years ago (can't remember where).
It's a good perspective word. Was the situation actually bad? Frustrating, sure. And annoying, and... But probably the most neutral (and true) word for times like that is "inconvenient".
For me, thinking of it that way often helps me see where my preferences are clouding my perception.
Jenn-you've got a lot of luck don't you? I must say the flirtatious cop part cracks me up. And the 1830's attire. You sure you weren't working on a script for a romantic comedy? You've certainly got enough there for the makings of one.
Thanks Jenn. It happens. I feel better now.
AMM, “inconvenient?” I have this picture now, of a guy smashing his thumb and Momma covering Junior’s ears as Poppa stomps around, repeatedly hollering, “Inconvenient! Inconvenient!” Or an angry skate-boarder-dude, who was told not to do their tricks on the church stairs, pointing back, shouting, “Oh yeah, well you’re inconvenient!!”
I’m teasing, of course. The vocabulary comment was said to lighten the moment, and get a reaction from my buddy who has never heard (and will never hear) me swear.
I gave up cuss words quite easily in 1986, replacing expletives with saying exactly what I mean. For example, reacting to pain, I can say, “this really hurts.”
At the time, I could have been composing a psalm of lament to my Lord, rather than making jokes, but my head was not exactly on a redemptive track.
AMM--Huh. I never thought of that. Just conflate a couple of life-episodes and voila, a film, starring Sandra Bullock!
Regarding expletives--sometimes when I'm trying not to use them, I do things like the "Inconvenient!" thing. Such as saying, "Oh--expletive!" It usually makes people laugh. Then it makes me laugh. Then I feel better. It isn't exactly saying what I mean. But it does help.
I hate it when I do stuff like this. The time and energy feels so wasted, doesn't it?
And if there's one thing I've learned in life it's this: never say "never" or "always." ;-)
I don't think God was trying to teach Craver patience and perseverence, I think the lesson to be learnt was "don't leave your keys in the car"!
My first visit to your site!
I came because you said you grew up in Chicago. Did you grow up in the city itself or in the suburbs? My wife is a south-sider, McKinley Park area.
I spent a lot of years in Chicagoland. Wheaton College and then Wheaton Grad School. Trinity Seminary in Deerfield. Pastoral assignments in Glen Ellyn, Roselle, and BOLINGBROOK!!!! I lived in the Ivanhoe subdivision just off Rt.53, south of Boughton.
When my wife moved out of Chicago her family moved to Bolingbrook. She has a brother around your age who graduated from Bolingbrook High.
Is your church in Bolingbrook?
We have a lot to talk about!
Dave
By the way, I believe in "created age." Yes to the tree rings in Eden. And carbon 14 dating would have dated things to be hundreds of thousands of years old right after Adam named the animals!
Very funny Ex-Shammy, very funny. Well, you know us homeschoolers, we squeeze a lesson out of everything.
Thanks for visiting, Shiloh Guy! I was born and raised on the North side… Chicago proper. I just left Shammy a note about how folks would use chairs to save parking spots in heavy snow. Did you get to “enjoy” that where you were, out by McKinley Park? My home and church are very close to that intersection you mentioned. It’s a relatively young church plant.
Craver, Ha ha. Been there, done that, more times than once, I'm sure. But the patience, growth in grace part comes slow. Well, as long as it comes. And as it comes, I think we become better at it (overall), better learners.
The first time I took my husband home to meet my parents, on an errand with my dad he locked the keys in their car with the engine running. As they sat down to wait for help outside the local Wal-Mart, it began to rain...
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