Pray for cars and it will rain

Once back when I was 18 I had borrow my moms car, she had just gotten it back from the garage where it had just had a major service. It cost loads of money and also gave issues so she was always a bit reluctant to let me or my brother use her car, but of course with our puppy dogs eyes and boyish charm we always got to use it. It also always broke down with one of us using it. More of a coincidence than anything else really, my car was this old black beetle. I loved the car because it was my first car and got it super cheap because my cousin owed my dad some money and was selling his car so I landed up getting the car. I was stoked and my friend Alan and I would spend endless hours working on the car and making it cool. Or at least what we thought was cool.  One night we took the car out to the movies, it was the middle of winter and that’s when we figured out the vents in the car don’t close, we where freezing and our last resort was to put my girlfriends jersey (she left it in the car, this never happened again after that night). In the dashboard through where the radio should be. We had the radio in the cubby-hole, as it was easier to install there. So we shuffled the jersey in nice and tight and it was working well until it decided to rain. As it was raining we needed to use the windscreen wipers, it was only drizzling so nothing too bad. When we got to the movie place to meet everyone including my girlfriend, she sent me a message to say “please bring my jersey out the car. So I went to grab it only to find that the windscreen wipers had tangled up the jersey and it had gotten caught that I couldn’t get it out and it ended up getting ripped and broken. It is funny how we all have gaps in our lives that we try fill with whatever we find laying around and appealing? It always goes back to having a God space inside of each of us that we just try fill with whatever is around whether girls, booze, or even sports.

 

So this night it was raining and cold so I got to use my mom’s car for legitimate reasons. I cant remember where me and Alan where going, but we where going out none the less. When I got to his house the rain had stopped and the roads where slightly wet, just wet enough for some fun. So Alan gets into the car and we reverse out of his drive way, as we are going backwards I quickly throw the car into first and do a wheel spin, however the wheel spin is cut short because the car just cuts out. My heart starts to race and I start thinking up excuses to why the car just stopped working. We manage to get the car under some trees outside of Alan’s house. The rain starts to pour down again and Alan and me are just stuck there in silence. Rain is dripping through the trees and falling on the windscreen. Then it was almost simultaneously that we thought back to Sunday’s church service about prayer and how this guy prayed to God and he got a wife. We both thought wow, what we are asking for is way easier than that. 

So I preyed for us something along the lines of “Father God, we love you and just want you too fix the car, we wont wheel spin again and will try be better people”. I thought it was a good prayer, we where bargaining with God, giving him what he wanted to hear and in return we would get our small miracle. At that moment our faith was huge, I mean it was either faith or the wrath of mom. After the amen we tried to start the car and to our surprise it didn’t start. No what, we almost felt a little betrayed by the whole deal, we had done our part, had faith and prayed a sincere prey and nothing. We felt cheated out of a miracle and also new the trouble that awaited us because of the unanswered prayer. After a while it stopped raining and we figured that God would answer our prayers if we met him half way, so Alan jumps out the car and starts to push, we try a few times and Alan can’t feel his arms anymore. I just feel the sinking feeling of surrender coming over me. I have nothing left to try, its time to face the consequences and phone my mom. Just before I do that though I pop the bonnet in the hope I can see what the problem is. Even though I have no real clue, I thought 5 more minutes won’t hurt. The whole time everything is going on I am still praying in my head asking God for help. When I pop the bonnet and look inside I notice that the box for the airflow straight into the engine has come off. So I clip it back on and away we go. Turns out the guys that services the car didn’t put it on properly.  

Seems God did answer my prayers but the way he wanted to answer them not the way I wanted them answered. He gave me the insight into the problem and I had to go and fix it. I think a lot of times we sit by and want God to fix everything and do everything for us. But if God has answered our prayers the way we wanted him too. We would not have developed a dependence on him, we would have properly in all honestly developed big heads because God answered our prayers on our terms, instead he taught us everything in his time. Everything his way, we don’t always have to understand that but the more we know the easier it becomes.  

Knowing what we know

Below is an intro to a little project I am working on! Called Saved by Chocolate Cake

When I was 18 I went to work in London for what was meant to be 4 years and ended up being 6 months which is another story all together. After a few weeks there and finding a cool job as a chef in a wine bar and getting settled in the staff accommodation, a room about 2 meters by 4 meters with a window that only opened 10 cm, to some that might sound big but too me it was tiny. But I was on my own and I was stoked, it was my first place away from the comforts of sunny South Africa. When I started to get dirty looks I realized it was time I did some washing. After visiting the local shop to get some washing supplies I gathered my things and headed down into the basement. I felt like somewhat of a hero, there is a strange sense that comes over you when you know you are on your own and about to do something for the first time. As I stood looking at all the machines and wondering to myself what to do. I remember I kept thinking a hot girl was going to come do her washing and we would become friends and life would be great. Never happened, instead in my excited state I continued to throw my clothes into the machine, throw in some washing powder and there I sat. I noticed some other machines had clothes in but the owners where not really phased to leave them unattended. They obviously weren't from South Africa; I wouldn't even turn around away from my washing, let alone leave it in the room alone. Although again I found myself wondering if in fact I left the room and returned later that day if my clothes would be dry and all nicely folded and clean by some washing fairy. Anyway, after entertaining my thoughts for close to an hour I wondered how much longer this was going to take, burger king breakfast finished at 10.30 you know. I walked closer to the machine to find that there was no water anywhere? Everything was dry with white powder all over it. It didn't take me long after that to figure out that the tumble dryer is for drying clothes and not washing clothes. I felt rather stupid in that moment. But was I really stupid? I mean how was I suppose to have know the difference, I have grown up in a family where if you didn't really know what you were doing you could ask and someone would show you or tell you. If you couldn’t find something you could ask, you just had to make sure you had looked hard before asking.

 

It is kind of like that with our walk with Jesus, we become Christians and have no idea about anything, we think we are doing the right load of washing when it turns out we just spinning hot air. It is almost forced on us that we should know what we are doing, but how are we to know with out people guiding us and helping us along the way. After all isn't this about community? I hope that the next few pages will help you too open up your eyes to the wonders of God, the goodness of who he is and who we are to him.

So often we are sold a chocolate cake Christianity, where they attract us with sweets and food, and while we there we stumble upon this person called Jesus. But that’s almost where it ends, the chocolate cake runs out and we are left with all these questions, not really knowing anything and expected to act a certain way and do things a certain way without actually understanding it.