After going on any mission trip, you quickly learn that the
motto of any missionary is, “Be flexible!” I used to think I was as flexible as
rubber, moving with any environment; having the ability to snap back into place
after. I don’t know if it is having kids, being so busy it dictates a closely
kept schedule, or simply better self-awareness, but now I think my flexibility
is a little more akin to steel. Steel is still flexible mind you, but only
after being subjected to intense heat (a whopping 2700° F according to my
friend Cha Cha). This flexibility and our mettle was tested on our very first
assignment as new missionaries: move to San Diego.
The Plan: Pack stuff we didn’t need during the weeks before
Sunday August 5, our moving date. Then have a garage sale on Saturday morning,
August 4. Pack everything we weren’t taking into the storage pod except for
beds and what we were taking to San Diego. Then Sunday morning we’d go get the
trailer my Dad had brought his truck to tow and pack it with everything we were
taking to San Diego. We’d also pack up the beds and couches into the pod and
then hopefully leave around noon at the latest.
Come Saturday, I was so ready to get it all done that I
decided we should go get the trailer and pack that day so we could make sure it
all fit and leave earlier on Sunday. My dad and I left at about 1 p.m. to go
pick up it up about 15 minutes away. When we got to the U-Haul store we filled
out all of the paper work, pulled the trailer over and hooked it all up. Then
we checked the lights. Tail lights…check. Brake lights…check. Left turn signal…nothing.
Right turn signal…nothing. Not good. We spent about 20 minutes trouble shooting
only to find out something was probably wrong with the electric connections
from my Dad’s truck. They wouldn’t rent us the trailer unless it was working
meaning we’d have to find a way to get it fixed if we wanted to get our things
to San Diego with us.
By this time, it was almost 2:00 p.m. on Saturday. We called
three different auto electric places only to find out most of them all close on
the weekends. I called the place we usually take our cars to find out they do
electric, but were closing at 2:00 and couldn’t do it until Monday either. We
then decided it probably wouldn’t happen today and if we wanted to leave by
tomorrow morning we’d have to fix it ourselves. So, we headed over to Autozone,
Kragen or whatever we could find to try to get parts and tools neither of us
had. While there, we were telling the worker our problem and he mentioned an RV
repair shop down the street that might be open. I looked it up on my trustee YP
app only to find it was closed. However, I did see one other option on the
other side of town and decided to give them a call. They were open until 3:00!
Now being about 2:20, we told
them we’d be there in 10 minutes (really 15, but they didn’t need to know
that). We ran out of the store and rushed across town through the normal Santa
Cruz summer traffic. We got to the shop at about 2:35. They looked at the
connections and found they were tattered and shot. By the grace of God, we were
able to get it fixed. I say by the grace of God not only because it was the
last place open and we would have had to either try to fix it ourselves or wait
until Monday. It turns out that they don’t even usually do repairs on
Saturdays, but they had a special project that day so that they just “happened”
to have brought someone in from Los Banos (an hour and half away) that day! He wasn’t even supposed to be there! So we
went back, got the trailer, went home and packed it all up.
All this to say, my
Dad and I had quite the conversation about what it meant to be flexible and
just to put circumstances into God’s hands. I was pretty upset and frustrated
through the process showing me again that I am more like steel than rubber. I
hope that I’ll learn to keep my cool a little more next time and trust God that
he is in control. I’m sure I’ll have many more opportunities to practice this
spiritual discipline in this next season with Chi Alpha.
When was a time when you had to
change plans and lost your cool only to find out later it all worked out? Maybe
even better than you had planned on your own? Were you able to trust God? Why
or why not?
The rest of the story? To be
continued…
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