I hate making mistakes. When I do, I get really hard on myself. “Why did I do that? Why didn’t I double-check that? How could I be so dumb?”
Not long ago, I ran out of gas. And it was a dumb mistake. I knew I was close to empty, but I was following friends, who were in another vehicle, to a store and I didn’t want to make them stop and wait for me. I just KNEW I had enough to get there and THEN get to a gas station.
Wrong.
I made it to the store just fine, but when we went to leave, my car wouldn’t start. The day was getting late and we had at least two more stops to make, so I was extra mad at myself. And embarrassed. I had to send my friends to a gas station and wait in the hot vehicle for them to return. I wanted to beat my head against the steering wheel.
“Why, oh why??”
They arrived back within about 10 minutes, full of smiles and a carrying a full red gas can.
“You’ll never believe it!” one friend said, jumping out of the car. “There was a lady in line just ahead of us who had a gas can, but no money to put any gas in it! She didn’t know what to do. We told her we had money but no gas can! Would she loan us her can in exchange for some gas?”
The lady, a foreigner, was elated! “Oh, yes! Thank you! Thank you!” she exclaimed over and over. She waited for us to return to the gas station with her can and then threw her arms around me when I got out of the car.
We were the answer to her prayers.
Because of my mistake.
Can it be that my God is bigger than I thought? I mean, I know He is glorified through holy living, through sharing the gospel and even through our work. But can He really bring glory to Himself through our failures? How could He know I would foolishly run out of gas, and then bring my friends to the rescue of another person at just the right moment in time?
I still don’t get it, but maybe I don’t need to. Maybe I can just rest in the fact that God is watching over the whole picture, NOT JUST ME, and can accomplish His purposes in spite of me.
I love serving a Big God!
Rachel
How has God shown Himself to be big in your life?
