what do you do with this?

First of all, you need to read the comments from yesterday's post.

Now from the category of: what do you do with this?

Two weeks ago I had a flat tire. Broken valve stem. It happens. Fortunately, I made it home and was able to resolve the problem without much difficulty. Sunday on the way to Smithville I had another flat. About a mile from 23rd Street I had to pull off on I-70 and fix a flat. A friend was with me. The donut spare was almost flat so we puttered on the side of the freeway to the 23rd Street exit, found a gas station and aired up.

We continued the drive to Smithville on 3 tires and a little donut spare. We were going to the Smithville UMC to make a presentation. When we got out of the car, my friend noticed that the other front tire was almost flat. Hmm. Three flat tires in two weeks.

After the meeting was over, some of the guys from the Smithville church helped us get one of the flat tires fixed so that we could go home. Interestingly enough, both of the flats on Sunday were also broken, cracked valve stems. 3 flat tires, all by cracked valve stems in 2 weeks.

What do you do with that?

Well, the first thing that I do is wonder if I have an enemy. Is someone vandalizing the car? Hmm.... I think about this. Do I have any enemies? I can't think of it. I can't imagine it. Maybe the stems were old or bad and all went out at the same time? Maybe it was vandalism, but random, not directed at me.

Well, now I have a ruined tire and a ruined wheel. I guess it could be worse. There were some good things that came out of this. {there is always some good if we are willing to see it.}

Good things from this story:
1. My friend and I responded to the trauma in a very matter of fact manner. We were very patient and reasonable even though we were changing a tire on the side of I-70 in dress clothes.
2. My friend's wife drove all the way to Smithville to rescue us if needed. Nice lady.
3. Nice men from the church spent 90 minutes with us after the meeting, helping us with the tires. They were great guys and clearly have very generous hearts.
4. It is just a car. It is just tires. No one was hurt and there was no long term damage. Hopefully, it is all over now.

But I think about all of this, and it is a mystery. I will choose to focus on the good things that came from the incident, and just let the origin of the problem remain a mystery. There are some things in life that we are just not going to figure out.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.