Meddling in Our Affairs · 1 September 2013
My wife, The Mindboggling Mrs. Miyoshi, says that God puts His fingers in our lives and mixes things up a bit. She is usually not being philosophical as she says this, sometimes even saying that He “meddles” with our lives. I must agree.
(When my wife talks like that I tend to move farther away from her. Lest the lightning strikes us both. I never say anything about the lightning, but she still says I need not worry. God is a better shot than that. It is one of our little inside jokes.)
The thing is, while God rarely strikes us with lightning, He does mess with our lives. And unless we have a little perspective, we may not even recognize His meddling. I had a hard time recognizing God’s hand in events this past week when I broke my truck.
I broke my truck by driving it while it was overheated. I first noticed the temperature gauge was high when I was almost all the way to work. I kept an eye on the gauge and decided that I could make it all the way without it being in the red zone for too long. I made it and did not worry about it too much. In fact, I calmly looked in the overflow tank and saw there was antifreeze so I figured that when the truck cooled down it would suck the coolant back into the radiator. After work, I checked and the coolant was not sucked back in. I put in a little bit of water and thought I saw it mostly at the top. I did not fill it all the way up thinking that I had some antifreeze all mixed up back home and that I would be able to make it there. Looking back, I should have made sure the radiator was full.
On the way home, the temperature gauge got to the red zone quicker than I thought it would. I did not have any more water with me and I thought I could get a little farther before it got too hot. After all, every once in a while over the years, my truck had gotten hot so I figured I could make it. But I finally had to pull over and wait for it to cool down. I texted The Mindboggling Mrs. Miyoshi and told her what had happened and that I was waiting for the truck to cool. After a few texts and a couple calls, we figured it would be best for her to bring me some water.
When she got there and I poured water into the radiator, I could not believe it took more than a gallon. It had been empty. The thing of it was that there had not been any puddles below the truck. Ever.
I got the truck home. Just barely. It stopped just before the driveway and would not start again. I thought I had run out of gas again.
It turns out that I was not out of gas, but since it stopped similarly to what it had done when I had run out of gas before, I just assumed the tank was dry again. I put in a couple gallons of gas and went for a fill-up. But after getting to the intersection near the gas station and needing to be pushed off the road. After finally walking to and from the station, getting more fuel into the fuel tank, then limping to the pump. And after overfilling the tank, I finally figured that the reason the truck stopped just feet from the driveway was not because I had run out of gas.
I did get the truck back to the house, but the engine did not stay on for the last hundred feet. I coasted into the driveway. As I was calling myself a moron and grieving for my broken truck, I was met by our neighbor who is a mechanic. He asked if I was losing antifreeze without seeing any puddles to which I answered yes. He told me to check the oil to see if it was milky and check a spark plug to see if it was wet. I only needed to check the oil to know that his diagnosis was correct. I had blown a head gasket.
Truth be told, if I had known what to look for, I would have seen the signs long ago and suspected a leaky gasket instead of waiting to be a moron and blowing it. I had suspected something was wrong for some time, but figured it was not bad enough to really dive into things. And even though I might still be a complete moron for breaking my truck, there are many silver linings. Much evidence of the hand of God being upon me.
The Mindboggling Mrs. Miyoshi was the one who pointed most of them out.
First, this happened in the daytime on the way home. It could have happened in the dark when I was on the way to school for the first day of the year. Second, we probably really do need a third car. Actually, we have needed a new car for a while (after all the truck cannot last forever), but a third car would make things simpler when in eight months we have another driver in the house. Third, having a broken truck in the garage is not such a bad thing. It gives Thing 2 and me a project we can do as a team. While I have not changed a head gasket before, I am sure we can do it together. And doing projects with my kids is another way to spend time together. Fourth, it is another lesson that I need to rely on God for finances as well as all the other areas of my life. For some reason, I keep needing that lesson.
I am sure there are other ways God has had His hand in what I would call this fiasco. There are other ways He is showing Himself. But as I rant and rave about my own mistakes and circumstances, this time, maybe The Mindboggling Mrs. Miyoshi will need to move away from me a bit when I say that God has been meddling in our affairs. Still, I am glad He does.
© 2013 Michael T. Miyoshi
| Share on facebook | Tweet |
|
Comment
Commenting is closed for this article.
| My Dad’s Favorite Picture | Writing Under Pressure |