Don’t Let The Devil Steal Your Joy
Today has been an adventure to say the least. The devil has been busy. I woke up this morning to start my day. I planned to finish my laundry, iron my clothes for work tomorrow, and write an entry to this site. Nothing happened according to my plan. First of all when I got of bed today, I flipped the light switch to the on position and there was no light. I quickly flipped the switch off and then flipped the switch on again. Still no light; the power was out. Immediately, I called my wife to see if the power was on before she left for work. It was. Next, I called our apartment complexes emergency hot line to see what happened. The guy who answered didn’t know anything and told me to call the power company. My wife called me back to inform me that over 2,000 people in the area had lost power. The power would not be restored until 4:00 pm. It was 11:45 am; what was I going to do for four hours with no electricity? I was furious!
That’s not all folks, the devil wasn’t done messing with me yet. I decided to go to my parents house so that I could get my mail. I got married recently and I didn’t change my mailing address. Since I was going to be out, I also wanted to go to my mother in law’s house to pick up our Christmas tree. I called my wife back to let her know what I was going to do. She said that she was getting off early and suggested that we run those errands together. So, I went to wife’s job so that we could have lunch together and then run our errands. I let her know I was on the way. She said that she would be ready by the time I got there. I should have known better. I arrived at her job, went in, and I noticed that she was at her desk with what looked to be piles of paper stacked up. Her eyes were glued to her computer screen. “Let me finish writing up this report”, she said. I asked her long it would take. “Give me about fifteen minutes”, she replied. I walked out and waited in the car. Fifteen minutes passed, twenty minutes passed and she still had not walked out. I grew impatient and irritated. I went in to get her and there she was. Talking to co-workers!
After she completed the conversation with her co-workers, we finally made it to the car. We got in, I tried to start the car and nothing happened. I waited a minute or two and tried again, still nothing. I tried with the remote starter and it didn’t even make a sound. I was already upset that my wife wasn’t ready on time, now this. I popped the hood to see if I could diagnose the problem. I didn’t see anything that was out of the ordinary. Sometimes my starter freezes up, so I grabbed my snow brush and tapped on the starter with the handle of the brush. Ah ha, that did the trick. We went to lunch.
After lunch, we were headed to my parent’s house when I noticed that my temperature light came on. My car was overheating. I was worried because I just put a new engine in my car for this very reason. The shop that replaced my engine is closed on Sundays so I had to find a place that could possibly put coolant in my car. I found a place and they told me that the coolant I had in my radiator was very clear, like water. They “topped off” my coolant. YES! The problem was fixed, so I thought. Well, a little bit later, my “low coolant” light came on. How could this be? I just got the coolant refilled. Then my temperature light came on again. So, I pulled over immediately. Thank God that there was another service shop down the road.
The service shop was about five minutes away. So it was extremely frustrating when it took me 45 minutes to arrive at the shop. Stop and go, stop and go was the way I coaxed my car down the road. When we finally arrived at the service shop, I could not believe my ears. Like the last, I was told that my coolant was clear like water. They recommended that I get the system flushed out. So I plan to take my car back to the shop that replaced the engine. I was very angry to say the least. We decided to go home. The trip home was long. The temperature would come on after a couple of minutes of driving. I drove for a while, the temperature light came, and I pulled over so it could cool off. This happened about a dozen times before I made it home. When I made home the lights were on.
The devil was busy today, but the Lord was even busier. The Lord kept us safe through all of my trouble. I prayed that we find out the problem to my car issues and make it home safely. Although, the cause to my car trouble is inconclusive, I am faithful that I will find out the answer tomorrow. We made it home safely. I got angry a lot today. I got angry that the power went out, I got angry when my wife wasn’t ready, and I got angry due to my car trouble. Through it all, God was with me. The devil had me down a little, but overall, he could not steal my joy. I am happy for the blessings that God has given me. I am happy that my wife and I are safe, I am happy for life, and I am happy to be a servant of Christ. Remember that no matter how hard the devil tries to steal your joy, you always have something to be thankful and happy for. The Lord loves us all and he wants us to be joyous for what he has done for us. “But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy” (1 Peter 4:14). God Bless.
| 2.5 |
