Have You Had a Rough Week?

Some weeks are just plain rough.  This past week started out by simply going to the grocery store.  I jumped in my car, looked through the rear view mirror, and the back window looked funny, like something was all over it.  Sighing, I got out and walked around to the back and lo and behold, the entire back windshield of my Honda Pilot was completely shattered.  I’m talking about a sonic boom shatter, like a shot gun blast, like an alien pulverizing it with a weapon.  I touched it and it started to disintegrate.  I pulled away the windshield wiper and it sucked a big hole out of the window.  I looked up in the sky and the rain clouds were coming in fast.  Oh no, I said.  I called the dealership where I bought it and they were closing, but they said “bring it on in”.  I immediately drove to the dealership while hubby began calling our insurance company to see if they would cover the complete smashing to smithereens of a window in our driveway.  I prayed that God would be merciful and that others would be as merciful too.  As it turned out, the dealership would repair it, they had one loaner car left, and the insurance company would pay all of it, except for our small deductible.  Praise the Lord! 

The next day while driving the loaner car, I glanced at the bumper and it looked like someone had backed into it; a spot where it was pushed in.  Oh no, I said, recalling I had signed an agreement making me responsible for damages.  Showing it later to my hubby, who also said, oh no, and some other words, he was able to push it back out.  Praise the Lord! 

Then the A/C went out in the house.  This would certainly not be a tragedy in December but in August in Mississippi, it is not a delightful thing.  Hubby called an A/C guy who said we had a leak somewhere, Freon was escaping and he filled it.  Cha Ch’ing$$$.  Then I felt compelled to look at our warranty for the new house, and there it was… our A/C unit was covered for 2 years.  Hubby calls the builder, another A/C guy comes out and he says, oh no.  The entire unit needed replacing.  He swapped it out that day, for free.  Praise the Lord! 

I looked at my calendar and my annual physical was glaring at me.  I really dread going to the doctor’s.  I only waited 5 minutes and everything looked great except for maybe some unwanted pounds I need to lose (which by the way, I brought up).  My plantar fasciitis foot issue will subside in a few months and my blood pressure was border line last time, now it’s back to normal.  With a little more exercise, I’ll be ready to climb something (not Mt. Everest).  Praise the Lord!

The week ended with my having to get my Driver’s License address changed.  Having gone there before and sitting amongst 100 other people that got there before me at 8:30 a.m., I decided to leave. I was apprehensive in going back. I also needed to get a new photo, now that platinum blonde is growing in.  After picking up my fixed car this week, I felt led to give it one more shot.  I stopped in, and there were only 5 people ahead of me!  I also needed to get signed up to vote in MS.  I stopped by that office, no one was there!  Praise the Lord!  My rough week of various challenges has turned into a week full of mercy and grace. 

The next few days we’ll all be closely watching Hurricane Gustav.  Memories from Katrina hitting MS; the lack of power, gas, and cell phones makes my heart ache.  Although I live in the middle of MS, we’ll get some strong winds and rain just as we did before.  But for my coastal friends, they aren’t emotionally ready for another hit.  Pray for them.

God allows trials, troubles and challenges into our lives even if we are followers of Christ.  He doesn’t prohibit them because it develops character traits he wants us to have such as perseverance, our attitude during the trial, showing love and kindness towards others, patience through the trial and faith that all things will work out.  These things are mentioned in the Bible, check out Romans. 

More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.  Romans 5:3-5

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.  Galatians 5:22-23

We should instead call a “Rough Week” an “Adventurous Week”, and let God take control and handle it all.