You've got to pray just to make it today

So my good friend Derek taught me a lesson this week. He was telling me a story about an experience he had driving in snow. It recently snowed in Washington, snowed a ton, and they're not used to it up there. Derek hates driving in the snow, but got stuck in a storm one Sunday night and had to go home during a blizzard. So apparently there's a two-mile long hill that leads up to his house, and as he approached the hill, he saw brake lights as cars all around him struggled and failed to make it up the hill on the slick roads. He said the road was "littered with cars." His own car struggled, and he thought he'd never make it. So he prayed. He actually said he was praying the whole time he was trying to make it up, and every time he had to stop and then seemed stuck and unable to move, he'd pray and the car would move. He eventually made it home.

This is an interesting contrast to my two recent stuck-in-the-snow experiences. When I got stuck, I yelled, exclaimed, cursed, felt frustrated, hopeless, and angry, and never once thought of praying. The last time I was stuck, the front end of my car was facing into the ditch, and the back end poking up in the street. I was working on a route, and very impatient to finish, as the snow fell for the 36th straight hour. So I stomped out of the car, tried to clear snow away from behind the front tires with my hands, then used my little screw-driver type tool to chip at the icy spots. I was exhausted already from working, scowling, on my hands and knees at work, and muttering the whole time. And I was not getting the car out. Someone drove by and asked if I needed help. I was so tired and frustrated and upset, I just mumbled some incoherent "no, I'm fine, just gonna die here..." and thought the person drove away, never to return. I laid down in the snow on my back and prepared to actually give up the ghost.

Then some lady across the street ran to my aid, offering a shovel with which to dig. Then the girl from the car came back with another girl and a guy, instructing me exactly what to do as they pushed me out. I was saved! She said after having been stuck and helped out twice already, she felt it her duty to help others, and I was her third save. We then proceeded to help out this other guy parked just down from me who was also stuck. This made me happy. The bonding that has happened during these ridiculous weeks of snowy roads is wonderful to see. It is also wonderful to see the Lord helping me, even when I fail to turn to Him and ask for it.

But after talking to Derek, I realized I do need help, and I need to ask the Lord for that help, because He's obviously willing to give it to me. I've been trying. I pray when I'm too tired to go on at work, and He helps me finish, and have a better attitude too. During the towing incident, I had to grab a credit card to pay with, and the guy needed ID. I somehow was unsure where my licence was, having placed it somewhere in my car to have whenever I needed it, but then forgotten where it was. Well, after the long night of walking home from Muse, getting a ride to the towing place, waiting for them to open the gate, and finally getting in to pay, I really didn't want to not have identification and have to go home again. So I went out to my car to find the elusive licence, and as I searched frantically through all my mess of papers in the car, I did pray and ask that I could find it. And you know what? I did. A small example, perhaps, but yet another testament that the Lord does love me and is aware of me, even my silly little struggles that I cause myself. And even when my attitude about it is horrible, and I'm cursing the heavens and fate and anything else that leads me to get in these little scraps (except myself, the real culprit), He still forgives and helps.

I think that is neat.