He Maintains and Sustains

Happy Sabbath

I had an interesting week and some good news.  Now last week, I said I was in a car accident.  My dad ended up having one on Monday.  A boy in his early twenties sped out and hit my dad’s stopped van in the front  of it and the boy tried calling my dad senile and wanted to drive off.  It’s funny because when I told him about my accident, he wanted to blame me for it and acted as if I could have done something to prevent it.  Little did he know a few days later he would have his own and he too had nothing in response on his part on how he could have prevented his.  My dad has issues, but getting to the good stuff. 

I went to the location Progressive required me to go (which was not in my state and an hour away from my home).  I work out of state so I opted to go on a day that one of my meetings was closest to the Progressive spot.  I went out there and they kept me at bay for over 2.5 hours and then finally said my car was totaled. 

The very words I did not want to hear.  Now the offer was, take this $5500 settlement and depart or leave with your car and get nothing.

The offer of fixing my car was off the table and they were not giving me a rental car knowing full and well that if I left the vehicle there, no one was going to drive an hour away to pick me up.  I have work meetings all this month and in the coming months as I have to revise my client’s plans and I need a vehicle. 

I rejected the settlement and drove off thinking I should follow up with my mechanic and run my case before my insurance company.  When I went to mechanic after my dad brought his damaged van for view, my mechanic said that I could still get the settlement money and keep my car.  All I had to do was ask if I could buy the car back (insurance companies have to sell the car to dealers who would then either repair and put them back on the lot or sell the parts to a junk yard.  I have a lot of good stuff in my car and it’s very much drivable.  He said they would give me the car back and remove $500 from the settlement money.  I decided to call Progressive the next day and got a little run around but finally an accident adjuster returned my call.  They agreed to take off $800 from the settlement, allow me to keep my car, and will write me a check for the rest of the money, which I plan to use toward repair costs with my mechanic.

God is good! He is able to maintain and sustain my life when I am out of resources and cannot see a way through.

See, they were trying to take my car.  If He didn’t lead me to see the mechanic and for me to reject the offer after talking to my parents, I would have a new car payment by now.  I fully own the car I have as a result of the previous accident.  I was looking at a BMW in the paper, but God knows what car is appropriate for me.

My car has a history and I am not ready to part ways with it yet. 

Thursday, I was in an office waiting to meet with two people and the receptionist was talking to a man who said he was afraid of hitting anything.  He may have been talking about an accident he had with a small creature.  He was afraid of hitting a person.  A guy sitting next to me agreed with him and I sat in silence.  I didn’t dare speak on the subject. 

One thing I will say is the year and day to the incident in 2014, and in the hour, I went past the location where it happened in silence and prayer.  I continued on to work and entered a ramp that I need to get on a different highway.  Satan likes to pick at people and he certain picked at me that morning.  There was road-kill on the road and I’ve seen road-kill many a time.  Only this time, I was not able to maneuver my car out of the way of the road-kill because of where it was on the road and the speed of which I was going in the ramp.  I felt my tires go over this poor creature.  What is significant about this is I have never driven over road-kill before that point and it happened on the year anniversary of that horrible accident about 3 miles away. 

But I’m still driving today because God allows it.  I still go outside my house because Jesus gives me strength. As I said before in the previous post, He Makes Me Brave. 

Satan wants us to hide and be paralyzed with fear.  On Thursday, I learned one of my clients’ believes he’s doing to be a daddy right after the people in the waiting area talked about their fear of driving over something or hitting someone.  I don’t know how to deal with this situation, but God will help me to say the right words to him.  Fear of bringing a child into this world without enough resources to support it is one thing.  Fear of not knowing if it is your child and that the person who claims you’re the daddy is trying to use you for your disability check and other benefits is my concern and one I don’t yet share with my client.  He has real things he needs to think about now.

I had to see someone at their house prior to this on the same day and when I got up to the driveway, a swarm of either bees or hornets (they were big and long) was blocking my way to entering the side door or basement door (I go through the basement because that door is usually unlocked and the staff want everyone to come that way.  I stood out side for a bit and wondered what to do (nothing in my car I could use because I cleared it out for progressive’s assessment) and a staff came to window laughing at me and told me to make a run for it.  He eventually came down and brought out a “weak” leaf blower and turned it on by the entrance to see if it could disperse some of the bees.  I made it in and out without getting stung. The staff who helped me stood outside in short sleeves unfazed.  He honestly believes if you don’t swing at them, they won’t bother you.

Ever since I saw my sister stung as she kindly allowed a yellow jacket to land on her hand, I was terrified of bees.  In marching band a boy said, “Just fan the wasp away and they won’t harm you.”  He fanned and it returned and stung him the crap out of his arm.  I watched him run away in silence across the field right after that.  My dad is of the same opinion.  Wave them away or spin to prevent them from getting a hit.  He’s been stung several times.  I was only stung once and it affected more than half of my body for at least a half hour so I am not taking my chances and I don’t have an Epipen. 

I go off on these tangents but what I am saying is to know God is with you and to walk trusting in His ability to bring you through, but to also have sense (I’m not saying common sense because it’s not as common as one would think).The phrase on my living room wall says, “Be Strong and Courageous.  Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.—Joshua 1:9” 

If you know God has given you something to do, don’t be afraid to do it.  He will equip you with what you need and get you there in one piece, perhaps without a car or with/without other things you never expected before.  He will care for you if you have a pregnancy you did not expect.  He will cover you when you lose your job or place to live. He will feed, clothe, and comfort you when you are hurting. These are all true and real promises that can be claimed today and they continue to be talked about because people, real people are experiencing the Lord's power and mercy in this generation. God is good yall!

Give it to the Lord and He will see you through.