Lessons in Trusting God

On Monday, in both my cell group (small group Bible study type thing) and in men's leadership Bible Study, we talked about different goals we all had for the new year. In both I mentioned that I really wanted to trust God more with all aspects of my life. I know that God is in control, so essentially, I don't want to be worrying about things when they don't go the way I plan them.

Well today, today was quite a day. I really had to trust God and I was getting a little overwhelmed at times. I couldn't believe what was happening, yet God brought me though, I generally stayed calm and trust God with it anyways. I still have a long way to go. I was getting a little anxious at points.

So you're probably wondering what happened. Well it all started this morning when I was getting everything ready to go. I had to do all the usual morning routine things and then get all my snowboarding stuff in my car for my snowboarding class later in the day. Well, all that seemed to go pretty smoothly and I was driving down to Houghton to get to my 9 o'clock class wondering which parking lot I should attempt to get into. I was about a quarter of a mile away from the Quincy Mine area and all of a sudden my car started slowing down. The accelerator pedal wasn't doing anything. I wondered what was going on. Since I couldn't go any faster, I pulled off to the side of the road and turned off the car. As I was pulling off, my oil light went on. I didn't dare start the car again in fear that I would kill the engine if there was no oil in it.

I proceeded to make a couple of calls. On the second call, I decided to call Chris Morgan. He knows a thing or two about cars and his wife-to-be Erica lived really close to where I was. I called him and asked him what he was doing. He said he was just driving to class and then I told him why I asked. He was actually picking up Erica when I called. He was within like a minute of me. Then, he said he could come and pick me up, so he did. Oh, I forgot to mention that my cars hazard lights weren't working the last time I tried, so I fidgeted with the button and found out it actually could work, but then it shut off after a bit, so I had to pull it a certain direction. Anyways, so Chris comes and picks me up with Erica and then we dropped off Erica at her class. Christ didn't have anything he had to do for an hour, so we went to the gas station nearby and picked up 3 quarts of oil to bring back to my car and check it out. We thought maybe (since my car had just been worked on a few days before) that the oil filter fell off because they may have put on the wrong one. Well, we looked under the car after putting in the new oil and nothing was leaking, so I started the car. It seemed a little bit rough, but started getting back to normal.

So then right as a cop pulls up to find out what's going on, we pulled away and I was going to drive to the dealership that worked on my car recently. I got about half a mile down and my car started kicking a little bit, so I pulled off to the side of the road again and asked Chris was he thought. He was following me in his car. I then tried calling my dad again and this time he picked up. Now I thought that when my car was just fixed that they gave it an oil change too and my dad thought they were going to, but they did not. That explained why the oil might have been low. I thought there would have been nothing to worry about right after an oil change. I asked my dad what he thought and then he called the dealership and then called me and told me what he said. Then I called the dealership and he told me what my dad told me and we decided after running my car a bit more that it would probably be ok to drive it to the dealership in Hancock a few miles away. I told Chris he should go to his meeting at 10 he had, so he left. I knew if something went wrong I had other friends to call. Well, I made it to the dealership and explained things. They said they'd look at it and I called Nate Kroodsma and he picked me up.

I decided to put all my snowboarding stuff in his car in case my car wasn't done by the time the class rolled around. We drove to Tech and when I got there, I missed 2 of my classes. I knew God had a plan in it though, so I didn't bother worrying about it at this point. I emailed my instructors explaining what had happened and they were ok with it. Nate gave me his keys so I could get my snowboard out of the car later on.

Well, about 15 minutes before my class later on, my dad called and said the car was done. I asked him to go pay for it (I'll be paying them back), pick up the keys, and come back to Tech. Then after my class, I would go to him and pick up the keys and get a ride up to get my car from a friend.

Alright, I'm not even kidding. As I finally got some time to relax, just now, a fire alarm went off in Wads, so I had to stop writing, go and stand outside in the cold, and then walk back in. It's been a non-stopped day.

Alright, so to continue... I ended up getting a ride from my friend Jason King who was in my snowboarding class up to my car. I got up there and told him I would meet him at his apartment later on. I then realized I hadn't eaten yet and it was after 2 o'clock, so I went briefly to Taco Bell to grab a cheap bite to eat. Then I realized I needed to go to Walmart to buy a certain type of notebook for a class. I went up to Walmart and they were all out of what I needed. They had tons of the kind of notebook I was looking for the other day, but not what I needed this time. So, it was a wasted trip and time was running out to get ready for my snowboarding class. I then headed back to campus and when I was almost there, I realized I hadn't gotten my book I needed for an assignment in a class and if I didn't stop at the campus store right then, it would be closed after I was done with my class.

I then went to try to park near the store, but all the parking lots were filled. I was about to park in a spot that wasn't a normal spot which would give me a ticket, but I was literally running in and out to get the book. However, a public safety officer was right next to me handing out tickets, so I couldn't even park there. I was running out of time and decided I would just have to do without the book.

So, then I started heading over to my friends house to carpool to the ski hill for the snowboarding class. OOPS... I forgot to go to my friends car and actually put the snowboard in my car, so I headed back the way I just came, really tight for time at this point. On the way there, everyone in front of me was stopping for all the college students to cross the road when the cars have the right of way. Oh well, I knew I shouldn't worry about it. If I was late I was late. It happened on the way back too. I got to Nate K.'s car, transferred my snowboarding stuff to my car, and then went to my friends apartment, went inside, put on my snowboarding stuff and we left right away for the hill. We got there on time, it was a good snowboarding class and then I got back. I decided to come into the Campus Cafe so I could check my email and do some homework. I then decided to start writing this blog... then the fire alarm went off and I had to come back to finish it.

So, what does one make of all this. It was a non-stopped busy day where nothing that I wanted to happen, happened the way I wanted it. I spent all but 3 dollars in my wallet on oil that was supposed to go towards gas in my gas tank. I drove around all over. I missed 2 classes, and I haven't been able to sit and think all day.

Let's look at the flip side. After all that could have gone wrong, my car could have been toast having run out of oil, I could have missed snowboarding. I could have not had a cell phone and been stranded on the side of the road for a long time. I could have not had a ride up to my car after it was fixed, I could have had to spend a lot more money than the relatively small amount at the auto place and the oil.

All in all, was it a horrible day? Absolutely not. It was quite the adventure, I got to see my awesome friends give up some conveniences to help me out and go out of their way for it. I got to see what great friends I have, the cost was fairly small, I now know to be checking my car's oil more. My teachers told me it was fine I missed class with the reason I gave them and I got the assignments. I have another friend who is going to email me the assignment out of the book for my class that's due tomorrow. Can we trust God with everything? You bet. He knows everything that's going on. His plan is the best. I don't know what all He has in store for everything that happened, but I know Romans 8:28 which says:

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."
-Romans 8:28

We don't always know right away what God is doing, but knowing that He is in control and has my best interest in mind, I can rest in that assurance. Praise God!

God is AMAZING and answers prayer!

Alright, so the coolest thing happened yesterday. My mom was working at the bank, and overheard one of her co-workers talking to a customer. The customer, an elderly lady, said that she bought a new car and had to get rid of her old one. My mom heard her say a few things about the car and that she wouldn't expect to get more than 1000 dollars for it. So, my mom decides to ask about it and go see it briefly. She said it looked good at first glance and asked the lady for her number.

Now my car is essentially falling apart. It still runs, but there are so many problems with it that it probably will not last much longer. So my mom was looking for me to potentially buy this car. Well, she called me and I was interested in checking it out. We didn't know how much she was going to say it was. So, my mom called my dad and me and we got a time together with the lady selling the car to take it for a test drive.

When we arrived at her house, she let us take it for a spin by ourselves so we could talk about it and comment on it on our own. It's a 1994 ford taurus, so it's pretty old, and it has 128,000 miles on it, which isn't too bad. There's very little rust and has power windows, power locks, air conditioning and cruise control, which makes it better than my current 1995 rust-bucket neon. We went inside to talk to her and she said someone had looked up the Kelly Blue Book price for it and it was valued at 1300 dollars. (I checked and found it to be lower than that, but it was 1055 bucks, so it's somewhat close). Anyways, she said she'd be fine selling it for $950. She invited us in to look at some paperwork on the car and to just talk to her for a while. She ended up saying she would just make it 900 dollars even because it needs an oil change and we'd need to get it licensed, etc.

Well after thinking about it, I don't actually have that much money and I'm trying to avoid taking out any loans while in college, so although it seemed like a good deal I was reluctant. My parents thought I should get it because my car is getting really bad. So, I said I'd like to think about it for a bit and we told her we would get back to her by this afternoon today. She said that would be fine. So, we went home and I came down to houghton. I felt stuck between a rock and a hard place on whether to buy it or not. My car does still run, so I didn't want to pay that much even though it was a good deal. So, I decided to pray about it and pray hard. I asked God to show me that if I should get this, He would have to give me a strong sign... I was hoping it wasn't that my car broke down so I would have to get it out of need.

Well, when I was down hanging out with friends at Cyberia Cafe, my mom called me. When I picked up, she sounded excited and said, "Well Nathan, I think God is working in this situation" so I got excited and said, "why, what's goin on?" Then my mom told me something that God and God alone could explain and cause to happen. She said the lady had called her back and said that on the new car she had bought, she really needed the money to pay the taxes on it quickly and that it would cost her a little over $500 and that we could have the car she was selling for $575! My mom couldn't believe her ears when she was hearing this. This car is worth $1055 and she was offering it to us for $575!

Now I don't know what you think, but things like that don't just happen! We had just called her and told her that we wanted to think about it. We never said no, and she simply called and greatly reduced the price of the car.

Simply put, God answered my prayer and told me to buy this car. To not buy this car would be foolish. Plus, I can actually afford that much without taking out a loan, and I'll have a little bit of money left which should last me until I get a job that I'll need to start looking for. Isn't God simply unbelievable. God truly watches over His children and hears their prayers and takes care of their needs!

Now whenever I drive friends around, the suspension will be better in the back seat and they won't have to ride in pain, so it makes it much better for carting people around too! God is amazing!