Unashamedly Christian

Last Sabbath I preached (more on that later) up at Hervey Bay – we stayed with our friends the Tempests and had a great time up there.

Saturday night my mother and I are driving back to the Sunshine Coast in my Defender. 21:45 and making good time with only twenty minutes to go I get a flat tyre on a back road. No problem, just a simple tyre change and we’ll be on the road again…if only! I take the spare off, and loosen the nuts on the flat, hand brake on and in gear…get the jack out and almost about to take the tyre off when the jack fails, slamming into the back of the 110 putting a dent in the back.

OK, slight problem! This jack is not going to be changing another tyre in it’s life again! No reception with the mobile…so the only thing to do is drive on the flat. Get about 3km down the road and a 4wd is coming along the road…wave them over and explain the problem – ah, no worries mate we’ve got a jack. They get their jack out, and I unload the spare…only to find that their jack doesn’t work either! They head on their way, and I try and figure out what to do (still no reception) – only option is keep driving as I have to be at work the next day. Drive 5km more at 10km/h and the tyre is smoking, pull over and wait for it to cool, both the tyre and the wheel are had it. This is not good.

I had taken my sermon on how we should respond to trials, disappointments and heartache in a way that glorifies God and draws us closer to Him. How ironic! All my idealistic sermon propositions of the morning were now staring me right in the face. I was tired, it was getting close to midnight and I just didn’t feel like thanking God for allowing me to experience this – I was getting closer to kicking the wheel in anger and letting God know that I didn’t like the joke. Then my mind went to the core of the sermon – David’s response to God when he was fleeing for his life from his son Absalom recorded in Psalm 63. “O God, thou art my God…Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name…Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.” Do you think that David’s natural response to the situation he found himself in was to praise God? I doubt it. However, he knew the fact that as one of my favourite Bible commentators Ellen White puts it, “Through trial and persecution the glory–the character–of God is revealed in His chosen ones.” she writes in another place, “If more praising of God were engaged in now, hope and courage and faith would steadily increase.” This is just what David was doing…and I had the choice too. I could choose to praise God and not become frustrated by what was happening or I could have a pity party and feel even worse. 

There is really only one option! I started praising God and thanking Him for the blessings He’d given me that day – you know it could’ve been worse! Sure it didn’t fix the problem, I was still stuck with a now wrecked tyre, wheel and jack…but it didn’t matter, I was rejoicing in God! This was not something worth loosing my experience with Christ over.

I checked my mobile and we now had reception. My mum suggested we call friends who live close by…give them a call explain to them where we are and he says he’ll be out soon. Over an hour later he calls saying where are you?! He’d turned around before getting to us as I’d underestimated how far I was (should’ve looked at the map Samuel!)…so half an hour later he gets there, and drops us home. We take the Freelander and I finally get the tyre changed! Get home at 02:30, into bed at 02:45 and I’m at work by 09:00!

And you know now looking back on it, I’d class it as an adventure rather than a trial. An experience that drew me closer to Jesus and concreted in my mind again the reality that all things do work together for good to them that love God, everything that happens to us can be turned into a blessing if we let it.