Churckles the re-run

Back by popular demand (or just because I like this one), from November

Sue and I were headed out to do some grocery shopping when my cell phone rang. Since it was raining and dark, Sue took the call. It was our mechanic. Sue chuckled as he said, "well, first the good news." After saying they got the Volvo running he went on to say that it is on its last legs. Now this is very understandable. The car is 22 years old with over 315,000 miles on it. Of course it's got to break down. At some point you know that the next punch may keep it on the mat. Permanently. But hey, it's a Volvo! These things run forever, don't they?

Like a vet who tells you it is time to consider putting Spike to sleep, our mechanic said he would give us an extra of the part needed for it to limp through life. But for how long it would run he would not even venture a guess. We need to figure out if we can get by with our Volvo out to pasture.

What has me chuckling is that our freezer died at the end of last week. At only 15 years of age, it was in the prime of freezer-life when its compressor gave way (maybe we kept too many high fat foods in it?). Unlike Spike my fictional dog, whom I might bury in the back yard if he died, we really don't have space to bury the freezer. So it sits in our basement with the door slightly open, kind of like a CSI morgue scene. Fortunately no bugs have begun work decomposing the freezer. That would be creepy.

Now if that were all that is going on, I probably would not be writing this. But on top of a dead car and a dead freezer we have been hit by unforseen financial pressures and a family squabble on the eve of dealing with an aging parent. It's enough to make a grown man cry, or maybe chuckle. This is crazy! What the heck is going on?

As we returned from the store I had my first case of the "chuckles" I said to Sue, "We must be doing something right." You see, either it's a coincidental run of bad fortune or there's more-than-meets-the-eye involved here. I vote for the later. Personally I don't like hard times, but theologically I know God uses them to shape us into the image of Christ. Like a hammer and anvil in the hands of an iron-smith, God uses the "rock & a hard place" times to mold us.

That's why James wrote:

"Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything."

Maybe that's where the chuckles came from? Maybe the spirit was helping me to know that this is an opportunity for joy? Yes I know that sounds saddistic, but when you know there is a purpose in the struggle and that something good will ultimately come of it, there's hope. And where there's hope, laughter is not far behind, and at the strangest of times!