Best of What's Around

The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble.  He cares for those who trust in him... (Nahum 1:7)


I had a breakfast meeting scheduled yesterday morning for 7:45 am at the IHOP near my office.  Man, was I looking forward to having a big breakfast and catching up with a good friend of mine.  I kissed my wife and boys goodbye and jumped in the car, put the key into the ignition, turned it and nothing-the engine wouldn't start!!

I went down the street looking for a set of jumper cables and my neighbors let us borrow some.  With help from my handy wife, we topped off the battery just enough to where my car would actually start.  At this point, it was around 8:30 am, and my buddy arrived at our home to help me take care of my car.

We went to the first automotive supply store to have the battery checked and apparently, my common car needs a unique battery.  The clerk at the first store informed me that he did not have the battery I needed.  I called around and finally found another store that had the battery and after another jump start, I headed that way.  After several attempts at installing various sized batteries, the "special battery" was not in stock and had to be ordered from another location.  This added another hour to my wait.  At this point, it was close to 10:30 and I was starving and had still not had breakfast.  Additionally, I missed my 9:00 am meeting and was beginning to wonder if I was ever going to make it to work at all yesterday. Around 11:00 am, I had a new car battery and finally headed into the office!

On the way into work,  I started to county my blessings and thank God.  I want to make a point of how blessed I was that this happened to me yesterday instead of, let's say, today.  For starters, I was blessed that my wife was home and was able to help me out as she left town to go on a beach trip later that morning.  I was also blessed that my meeting was with an understanding friend instead of a meeting with a prospect or client.  Another blessing was that it was ONLY a battery that needed to be replaced and not something more like the alternator; my wife is staying home from work until November and we don't have a money tree growing in the back yard.

God is always with us, even on some random day where the unexpected creeps into your life and causes trouble.  I had a peace that everything would be just fine.  The more I thought about how things could have been much worse, the more I realized just how blessed I really was!!!