Stolen

It was the 1990’s and I had just graduated college.  Times were tough as jobs were few.  I had looked for work day after day and month after month.  It was in the days before the internet and cell phones.  Ok, they existed, but most people, as was the case with my family, couldn’t afford them.  So, living in rural Maine, I needed a car to get around to even visits libraries to look for work.  The father of a friend of mine had a clunker of car for sale:  a 1972 Chevrolet Nova.  It was in sad shape, but I bought it nonetheless.  I managed to repair it enough to pass the state inspection requirements, and for that I was grateful.

There is much to tell about this car, which I only owned for a year, but for this story, I will focus one particular “feature” of the car.  The car had an automatic transmission which was on its last leg.  In order to drive the car, one would start the car and then rev the engine slightly for about 1 minute.  After that minute, the car would start to rock forward and backward slightly, until there was enough pressure built up in the transmission to actually fully propel the car forward.  (Nova or “no va” in Spanish coincidentally means “no go.”)  This was such a “unique” feature I left the key in the ignition switch at all times, believing that no would be able to steal the car.

One evening I was visiting an uncle of mine in Norway, Maine, a small city of 8,000 people.  It was a warm evening so my uncle had the windows open in his third story apartment, as we visited.  About midway through the visit, I heard a car start, and it sounded a lot like my car!  I said, “That sounded like someone starting my car,” as I walked to the window.  The car was right where I left, and it wasn’t running.  With my mind set at ease, we continued our visit.  When I left his apartment building, it was late so the neighborhood was very quiet, but I heard faint music. As I approached my car, the volume of the music increased.  I opened the door to my car and found the key was in the “on” position, and the radio was playing music.  I was stunned that someone had actually tried to steal my car.  (If you could have seen the car, you would understand why I say this.) But…I was even more amazed that, because of the transmission “feature” they were not able to drive the car away and simply left it!

You see, this car was means for transportation for a year.  Without it, it would have been difficult for me to take odd jobs and look for work.  I had no steady income, and no prospects for jobs in the field of my degree, mechanical engineering.  So, holding onto this car was important.  Though I only paid about $200 for this car, it brought me to small odd jobs and a few contract jobs far away from home, it allowed me to shuttle several others around when their vehicles were out of commission, and it allowed me to swap vehicles with my father when I needed to travel greater distances for interviews or research job openings.

It was plagued with problems:  the transmission slipped as I described above, the transmission was only held in place with a bungee cord, which cause the car to shift into neutral whenever I took a sharp right turn, the rear axle was so worn that the wheels drifted in and out causing the back of the car to sway, the radiator had a small leak near the top, so I would often stop at a pond or river to collect water and pour it into the radiator, (and no that wasn’t good for the engine), the floor was starting to rot, so the front bench seat was in a constant reclined state, it used about a quart of oil every week, so I decided not to change the oil, but rather continue to put a quart of new oil in each week, the gas gauge either read full or empty, nothing in between, when it read empty I knew I had about 2-3 gallons of gas left, it had many flat tires, with 4 of them being the driver’s side rear, and so on.

Despite all these problems the car was still very useful to me and several others.  Likewise, despite all my flaws, God uses me to help others.  None of my flaws can prevent God from using me, because I honor Him by acknowledging His mercy toward me and His grace upon me.  There are many examples of people in the Bible who were defective, yet God chose to use them; not because they were good people, but because they honored Him with their lives.  Gideon was a coward, but the Lord used him to lead an army of three hundred to drive out tens of thousands of enemy troops, (Judges chapters 6, 7, & 8).  David was an adulterer and a murderer, but was king of Israel, (2 Samuel 11).  Rahab was a prostitute, but helped Israelite spies infiltrate enemy territory, (Joshua 2). 

Satan tries to steal us away, by telling us we’re no good, we’re defective, that God has no use for us, and so on.  But, when we belong to the Lord, God protects us from the enemy and those who would desire to derail us.  It requires action on our part, though.  We must listen to the still small voice in our hearts that tells us we are worthy of God’s service, we are not defective, and God does have use for us.  Take time each day to spend time with Jesus; no cell phone, no computer, no radio, no YouTube®, just you and Jesus.  You’ll be amazed at how you’ll be able hear Him.