His Ways are Certainly Not My Ways

In my preceeding post I mentioned that I had a few extra minutes on a Sunday morning, which is rare. So, I took the time to put up a quick devotional. Hmmm...if I had only known.

You are probably as sick of hearing about the snow as I am of looking at it. ;) Unfortunately it plays a pretty pivotal role in this little story I'm going to share.

I was having a pretty good morning...the boys were fed and dressed early. I was wearing a fabulous new top that I found on clearance for nearly nothing. I was prepared to pinch-hit for a Sunday School Class, if needed. And, I was looking forward to participating in something called a Cardboard Testimony during our worship service this morning. If you've never seen one of these, you should. Check out the YouTube video at the end of this post.

Everything was going smoothly, then I had the nerve to try to drive up my driveway. You see, when we had 4 feet of snow on the ground, it was impossible to tell exactly WHERE the driveway was. When our neighbor dug us out, we had to guess at where the curves were. Now that 3 feet of that snow has melted, we've discovered that we missed the curves in two spots, which has resulted in this...

Now, let's talk about my mode of transportation. I have a Jeep. It is a soccer-mom Jeep, but a Jeep nonetheless. It is beyond my comprehension why, but my Jeep has only one drive wheel. This means that only one wheel is actually doing the work of propelling the vehicle forward or backward. It also means that if this one wheel gets in a bad spot, you are stuck. A patch of ice the size of a dinner plate can cause me problems. It hasn't happened often, because I'm careful about where I put that wheel...but it does happen.


Back to the story...while trying to navigate past the mud slicks in my driveway, I got over into the snow/ice pile that borders it...about 4 inches too far over...with my ONE drive wheel...can you see where this is headed?

I thought...I'm from the country...no big deal...I've got this. Well, after 10 minutes of digging out and trying various methods of escape, I decided to unload the boys, get them in the house, and change out of my very cool clearance top and heeled boots.

I finally got out. I did not have the presence of mind to take a picture while I was stuck. (I was too mad that I had gotten stuck in the first place.) It took about an hour of shoveling, maneuvering, and filling my mop bucket with gravel from the driveway to put under and behind the wheel that was stuck. And, I came out of it a filthy mess. But, I got out...all by myself. (Did I mention that my hubby is on a business trip?...and that dozens of people drove by and saw me working but not one offered to help?)

Of course, by the time I finished, it was too late to make it to church. For that matter, I was too much of a mess to go anywhere. And, because this is what I always do AFTER any kind of crisis or stressful situation, I had a good cry. (I don't know why I do this, you'd think I would cry during the problem instead of after it is solved.)

Because I believe that God is in control of all things, I know that my getting stuck and missing church today was within His control as well. Maybe my heart wasn't in the right place about the cardboard testimony, I don't know. He and I are gonna have to talk about that. I know this, He has some purpose in it. His ways are certainly not my ways.

I thought I would share my cardboard testimony with you. The first pic is the front side of the cardboard. It is supposed to reveal something from my life that I tried to control. The second pic is the back side. It reveals what happened when I let God have control. Watch the video, it will bless you.