Yesterday,
I did probably the dumbest thing I have ever done in my life. I don’t know
where my brain was, but it certainly was not functioning. Maybe it was in my haste to get ready to
head to church with all of the extra things I was taking for a special celebration
during and after the service. Or it might have been because of my incredible
level of distraction due to taking Jon’s service dog back again for the first
time since his “retraining” at Pilot Dogs. Whatever the reason, I simply was
not thinking.
I
had the hatch of my leased Prius raised with all of the extra things we were
taking that morning, and I had one more thing to add. I decided to back out of
the garage, making it easier for Jon to load his dog. And, you guessed it, with the hatch still raised, it smashed
into the garage door, ripping off the spoiler on the edge of the hatchback.
The
damage was complete. It broke every contact that holds the spoiler in place, so
I drove on to church with it dangling by the back light wires.
All
the way to church, I was beating myself up for my utter stupidity. I think I called
myself every derogatory word I could think of at the time. I was totally
astonished at how utterly moronic this episode was, and all I could think of
was how much money this was going to cost me to get it fixed.
Then,
I remembered.
What
was the lesson?
If
there wasn’t a lesson, then I know I would have been nudged by the Holy Spirit
to realize my hatch was up. I have had those warnings many times before, and I
have come to expect that extra support from my Comforter. It didn’t happen this
time.
Now,
maybe I was so distracted, I just didn’t hear it. Or, maybe there is a deeper
lesson.
When
I, ashamedly described my ditzy act during Sunday School, one of the ladies
reminded me that maybe I am supposed to provide this opportunity for someone
else to reach out and help me.
It
was no surprise that this woman’s husband jumped to my rescue to help remove
the light so that the broken spoiler could actually come off.
It’s
a holiday weekend, and I have to wait another day to find out how much damage
this unthinking act is going to do to my bank account. Regardless, as soon as I
switched my thoughts from my shortcomings to His purposes, I felt much better
inside.
Life
is full of ups and downs, but our attitude is truly what makes the difference
in how we handle them.
Yes, Linda, our attitude does make the difference. I am learning to look at the MANY often brainless blunders I've made as ways to remember where I was in my life at the time of the blunder. Like the time I backed my car into a very short and sturdy mimosa tree while I lived in Florida, before going to the airport to pick up
ReplyDeleteAshley! Now I look at that dent on my fender and recall the joy of seeing Ashley and our fun time together! Or the homemade horchata drink Liz made for my second grade students at South that spilled all over the carpet of my new car!!! But those blunders are attached to some memorable times and so I don't really regret them. We could all remember times of blunder and be thankful we are blessed with another day to thank God for the opportunities to feel. Does this make sense?!