Just......Trust.

A long, long time ago, we lived in a small town just north of Los Angeles. We had been renting the house we lived in for the last couple of years and were rather “comfortable”. One day, the landlord calls up to inform us that he is selling the house. He offered us first chance at buying it, but we declined. Even though we felt comfortable, we did not want to own it. Besides, we were not ready to purchase a home just yet. I had just started a new job and had bought a new Ford Ranger pick-up so I could get to work. (The first brand new vehicle I had ever owned).

According to our plans, we wouldn’t be in any position to purchase a home for at least another year. But then, God’s timing is much different than mine.

We went through a few realtors who treated us as too low on the scale to have to spend too much time on us. We felt frustrated and that both our time and their's was wasted.

We tried one more agent who turned out to be fantastic! She showed us some great houses and offered to help in all areas in being able to get into the home we wanted. One day, we found the “perfect” house. Oh, it needed some TLC and it would take some time to make everything “just right”, but we both saw the same huge potential in that house. But there was only one catch. It was just out of our price range. However, the sellers were in a bit of trouble and agreed to a short sale (only selling for what was owed). This put the house down into our range and we agreed to make an offer.

The other catch was that we needed to receive certain pieces of mail real soon in order for us to be able to even make the offer. As the agent dropped us off at the rental house, the postal truck was just pulling away from our mail box. And guess what was in the mail that day? Every peace of mail we needed to make this deal happen. We had been praying about it, felt great about the house (we rarely agreed on anything) and now we felt that God had given us all the signs that proved that this was the home He was providing for us.

Through the process, we learned that there was a second mortgage on the house and that it was held by the ex brother-in-law. Even thought his sort of thing looked real bad, we trusted God in that everything would work out according to His plan. We were so sure that this was God’s will that we let our second and third choice homes slide away and get purchased by someone else.

Our agent thought we were nuts to put so much faith into just one home without a back-up plan, but I told her that God was at work and to just stand back and watch Him work a miracle.

As time passed, which also included the time running out for us to be out of the rental (it had sold), the ex B-I-L still had not signed the release on the second mortgage. It turned out that he was trying to hurt the sellers and we just happened to be the unwilling victims with our hands tied.

The time had come and the ex B-I-L still hadn’t signed and the bank foreclosed on the property. Our agent called to say that it was over, that we had lost the house.

I was devastated. I was also thoroughly upset. I spent the drive to work having a rather “intense” conversation with God.

Okay, actually, a conversation means that two people are communicating with each other, with each one taking turns speaking and listening. I did all the talking. Well, to be perfectly honest, I did all the yelling! I was ticked and I was telling God off! I was hopping mad and I let Him know it!
(How stupid is that? To think that there is something that God doesn’t know?)
I was so mad I was yelling at God the entire way to work.

“How could you do this?”
“How could you build us up so much just to take it all away like that?”
“How could you give me so many signs that this is Your will, and then squash me like that? Especially after I told our agent how much faith we have in You and how awesome You are?”
“How could I ever trust You again?”

Yep. I told Him off good.

Then, just as I finished, God decided to answer me.
He’d been patient and kind and let me get it all out of my system before He offered His response.

As I approached the facility where I worked, I had to stop at the red light in the left turn lane at the intersection near work. As I waited for the light to change so I could make my left turn (I was in front), a small Aerostar mini-van stopped in the middle of the intersection trying to make a left turn, so he would be heading in the direction I had just come from. I couldn’t figure out why the driver of that van didn’t just go ahead and make his turn. There were no cars coming and the intersection was clear and he had a green light. He just kept inching his van forward as if he were waiting for a break in traffic. But there wasn’t any!

Then the light changed to yellow. He still waited, still inched forward, and then, just as the light was about to go to red – he floored it! Just as this was happening, I noticed a very large, full-sized pick-up truck with huge tires approaching from my left. Instead of stopping for the red light, he too thought he could beat the light. I now had a left turn arrow.

I watched, almost in slow motion, but not quite, as the two vehicles met in the middle of the intersection. Bang!

Now, when two objects collide at an angle to each other, the result is that the smaller (lighter) of the two objects will change direction depending on the speed and size of the larger object. The Aerostar “bounced” off the front of that huge truck.
In case you don’t remember much about vector theory from high school physics, I’ll just get to the point. That min-van was knocked straight towards…..me.

I saw it happen, I saw it coming, and that now-launched mini-van was now going to wind up in my engine compartment. I had only made two payments on my truck so far.
It was brand new.
The explosion of glass from that Aerostar was spectacular.

I grabbed each side of my steering wheel and braced myself for the impact of my airbag.
I closed my eyes and prayed I wouldn’t get hurt too bad.

I heard the squeal of the tires, the sound of tiny pieces of glass showering down all over my truck, and then I heard the loud crash of the second impact that brought the mini-van to a stop.

But I didn’t feel a thing.

I slowly opened my eyes and I was completely amazed at what I saw. My windshield was covered in pieces of glass, it looked like snow. The skid marks on the pavement went from the point of impact, straight towards the front of my truck, but the Aerostar was resting on my right side. It had taken out the little Toyota on my right side. From where the van was sitting, there is no way he could have gotten there without going through me. My truck didn’t have a scratch on it.

Then I heard a voice. Not that still small voice you may have heard about, but an audible voice. Soft, yet firm and deep. The voice said,

“Do you trust Me now?”

I’m surprised I didn’t wet myself. Thank you, Jesus, on both counts.

I got out of my truck to inspect the damage. I checked on everyone to make sure no one was hurt (everyone was fine). A woman who was in the car right behind me saw the whole thing. She asked if I was okay and said I must have guardian angels. She also asked if I had thanked God for what had just happened (or not happened). I told her I most definitely had. I don’t remember seeing her at all after that.

I gave my statement to the police officer, wiped the “snow” of glass off my windshield, and drove across the street to work. I was still shaking.

I learned some things that day.
I learned that God doesn’t like to be yelled at.
I learned that I can trust Him in ALL things.
And I learned that He still loves me even when I am stupid enough to think that I have the authority to tell Him off.

Oh, and the rest of the story?

Two weeks later our agent called to ask if we still wanted that house. The ex B-I-L had finally signed and we were still listed as buyers. We paid the legal fees to get it out of foreclosure, which wasn’t too much so it was still in our price range. We closed on a shortened escrow and everything timed out perfectly.

I learned that not only can I trust God, but I am much better off if I do.

Blessings.