There is something about driving a car, flying a small plane, a boat, an ATV… it is usually a feeling of being in control. At this present time in our country, the USA, do you have a feeling of being controlled? Our freedoms seem to be crumbling, our institutions unstable, our health threatened. We don’t have the controls, things are out of our hands and it seems those in control are not friendlies.
An incident comes to mind thinking on this situation. My husband has been driving a car since he was nine years old; not on the highways at that age but in fields where he lived. He always remained in control and I had every reason to believe that would be the case one sunny autumn day when he decided to take me for a ride in the car he built himself in 1960.
The body of the hot rod was a 1931 Model A Ford lowered and fender-less with a powerful V-8 engine and 4 on the floor transmission. Sound like I know what I am talking about? Not really, even though he has been ‘educating’ me for quite a number of years now.
Our daughter was excited and took a photo of us leaving and I would find her still standing in the same place with the camera in her hands on my return (this tells you it wasn’t that recent). As usual I’m getting ahead of myself. As we drove down the country road and stopped at the stop sign everything was going well. The engine sounded great. Then things changed as my husband pulled out unto the deserted county road and ‘stomped’ on it. We were out of control. The steering had a mind of its own and the little coupe seemed about to crash as it turned of its own accord.
The amazing thing I remember from those few moments was not panic, but peace (of all things), There was nothing I could do and I just relaxed and prayed, not in words, but in giving my desire to control over to One I knew was and is in control. And that’s what needs to happen now. Not giving up yet doing what I can but with the knowledge it is not all about me. It is about Him.
The car came to a stop on the crest of a small bank on the side of the road. The car. my husband, and I were fine, just a broken axle or something like that. He waited until a neighbor came to tow the hot rod home less than a mile away and I got a ride back with a passer by. My daughter was a bit upset and I admit I collapsed on the sofa.
You’ll be relieved to know the three of us (my husband, the car & myself) are alive and well and occasionally go out together on sunny autumn days. Just one of those things we are thankful for on this Thanksgiving Day
DJ Pasternak, Author 