A bad moving day can point us to Jesus

The move to ABQ was going great. We made it to Oklahoma City just fine, spent the night there and then headed out the next morning for the second leg of the trip. All was well until the moving truck with our whole house packed in the back broke down 180 miles from Albuquerque. Before we left everyone felt the need to tell me all their moving horror stories about trucks breaking down in the rain, etc, but I thought to myself this will not happen to us. It did. So here we were out in the middle of nowhere just about 50 miles inside of New Mexico (better than the old) and it was clear that we can't leave Kim, her mother and our two little children (who are already dying to get out of their car seats after being strapped in for two whole days straight) on the side of the road with me waiting for help, so I send them on to ABQ, thinking that surely we would rendez-vous later that night at the least. Again, I was wrong.

When the towing co. got there they informed me that we had to tow the truck with all our stuff BACK to Amarillo, TX (two hours drive back the way we came), cause this was the nearest place that could fix the truck. Keep in mind that where we broke down was just a few miles shy of the exact middle point between Amarillo and ABQ. I called and called the Budget Truck people pleading (ok, it was not pleading, it was more like yelling, threatening, and being very angry) with them to take me ABQ instead, since this is where my family was and this is my final destination anyway and it was not that much farther to ABQ than back to Amarillo, TX. I could not get anyone on the phone to sort this out, thus their protocol of always taking a broken down truck to the nearest location to fix it was the trump card. Basically, they called the tow truck driver and informed him to take my truck with all my stuff in it back to Amarillo, no matter what I said. He informed me of this and so basically there was nothing I could do at that point - how can I say this nicely?... I was pissed, very pissed.

When I got to the hotel I looked up the web page of the service place where my truck got towed to. It turns out that this truck service facility is a nation wide business and they have the same facility in ABQ!!!! Now I was really pissed. So basically Budget rental screwed me over for the sake of 45 miles difference of towing. But what makes no sense at all is how bad of a business decision this was on their part. They could have towed me to ABQ, but instead the computer or policy or whatever said to take me to Amarillo, no questions asked. Now they have to reimburse me for meals, gas, cell phones minutes, and hotel. What sense does that make? If they would have taken me the extra 45 miles to ABQ they would have none of these costs and they would have not lost a customer for life. Bad business.

So Kim, her Mom and the kids stayed the night last night in a empty house. Stressful situation for them and I felt bad that I could not be there to help her with the kids and other things.

So here I am this morning laying in bed in a hotel in Amarillo praying the truck gets fixed soon so that at least I can get to my family today.


Now to the spiritual stuff...

As I awoke this morning I was vacillating between feelings of serious anger, but also thankfulness. My possessions were taken from me to a place that I did not choose and our plans were set back 24-48 hours. But it could have been worse and many many people throughout the history of the world have experienced much much worse. What if I was a Polish Jew in the 1940’s and instead of my possessions being taken away from me and shipped off to a place that I did not choose, it was my kids who were taken away, never to be seen again? My situation is not that bad.

Or I could have been born in modern day Sudan or North Korea where people are being mutilated, raped, and tortured on a daily basis. In light of this, my situation is frustrating, but really not bad at all.

I was also reminded that my family has enough possessions to actually fill a 26-foot truck. This is something to be thankful for in light of the fact that owning a pair of shoes qualifies you as rich by the world’s standards. Seems like my situation is getting better the more I think about it. We are blessed beyond measure.

Ok then, let me ask you this…

In light of my situation yesterday, what is the more godly thing to do? Joyfully, receive the mild suffering inflicted by a big business making bad business decisions for the sake of identification with Jesus, or put up the best fight you can for what is right?

It seems to me that there are two big issues at work here:

1. I know that we are called to accept suffering joyfully for the sake of identifying with Christ who “for the joy set before him endured the cross”
2. We also know that God is a God who loves justice and hates oppression and thus we as Christians, who are made in his image, should fight for what is right and good.

In the end, I think we fight for what is right, but when there is nothing left for us to do and our hands are tied, we thank God for the fact that his hands where tied down too and that he was mistreated and went to a place that his human flesh did not want to go for the sake of bearing the pain that I should have bore. This is truly good news.

I thank God that a bad moving day can point me to Jesus.