The God of break-lines and of broken cars....


Just yesterday I was telling a friend, while we were charging the dead battery of his car, that automotive problems seems to be God’s chief tool to test my spiritual walk with Him. In our family we joke that we have a curse when it comes to cars….

Today, I took my ’96 Grand Am in for a required Virginia State Inspection (which I knew needed to have a fixed hole in the exhaust system-only 75$). The mechanic called me about an hour later telling me, “You need a new car.” I was dumbfounded. The curse has struck again. It turns out that he was exaggerating… kinda. Throughout the conversation, I learned that I needed two new brake-lines, new brakes and new calipers, and a few other things, totaling over half a grand in parts and labor. He said that the rust is so bad it will cause problems later, too. So, just to make sure, I drove back and looked at it myself. Sure enough, rust had eaten the back brake-lines. It was so bad that when they touched it to check, it broke.

This isn’t a good way to start a morning. Anxiety, impatience, frustration, and helplessness, started to creep in my heart, as usual. No one likes to pay that much, or take the time and frustration to fix it or to ask friends for rides while their car is in the shop. Yet, in my soul I have an animosity more than most towards broken cars. Despise is a good word.

The Bible says that all things work together for good for those who are true Christians (Romans 8:28). Yet, if we are honest, most of us see an apparent disconnect between this truth and our reality at times. How does having a broken car work out for my good? On a larger scale, how do trials in general work out for good?

First off, we must remember that we are only creatures and that God is God and He has the ability and right to do whatever He wants (Job 38). He is much wiser and smarter than we are, too. So, when our trials, big or small, seem to workout badly instead of for good, we don’t see the big picture. For example, Shannon told that when she was a kid, she broke her arm. It turns out that a second doctor had to re-brake her arm weeks later because the first doctor set it improperly. Now, to Shannon, breaking her arm a second time did not seem good. Yet, despite the pain then, her arm shows no sign of deformity today. In my favorite poem by John Piper, an excerpt reads, “Beware…God is kind in ways that will not fit your mind.” We must trust that God is good, even when we don’t see or understand it.

Secondly, God often brings us trials to reveal who we are inside and what we are trusting in. Once again Piper’s poem, which retells Job’s trials and loss, puts it well,

The Lord has made me drink
The cup of his severity
That he might kindly show to me
What I would be when only he
Remains in my calamity.Unkindly he has kindly shown
That he was not my hope alone.

When we get frustrated over little things like cars breaking down, we reveal that we are putting our trust in material things, money, etc. Whenever I have car trouble, I start to feel the stress of not being able to handle the situation. Yet, God wants us to trust in Him to take care of the situation. He wants to have His rightful place-1st place- in our lives. Often, He will move things that are in the way of that goal. We should be grateful too, because there is nothing better than trusting God completely and enjoying who He is and what He has done for us.

So, at the end of this day, I hope to praise the LORD that He made my brake-line rust, knowing that He did it because He loves me and is drawing me closer to Him. I guess that the curse is a blessing in disguise.