Carwash

My oldest brother, Marcus, is coming to Wichita, KS tomorrow. Not just him, though—his wife (our sister-in-law), Terri, and our nephew, Marcus (we call him, “Lil’ Marcus!”). They’re coming to pick up our great-niece, Rayona, from the Dwight D. Eisenhower National airport. Rayona will be spending her Christmas break and her birthday (born on Christmas day) in Kansas. What a treat for all involved! Yes, we already have her homemade rice crispy treats prepared.

Oh no, my car is filthy from all the dust God allowed to be stirred up over the past several days. I better get to the car wash, because I wouldn’t want my brother (or nephew) to see our dirty Tahoe. Yes, my brother (and his offspring) is meticulous about his cars, and I don’t want him to act on a possible urge to drag out the water hose and prepare a bucket of soapy water to bless us by making our car look spiffy.

Here’s my thought—I’m going to be running a few errands today, so I’ll just fit in quick car wash to get the Tahoe presentable.

Was I ever glad when I pulled into Charlie’s Car Wash and there wasn’t an unbearable long line out the parking lot and daring to wrap around into the street. So I pulled right in and proceeded to the booth where a young lady offered a quick greeting, then casually rambled through her barely comprehensible speech for the 65,000th time that day. I tried to listen closely, but I missed almost every other word because she spoke with speed lightening. All I remember is she wanted me to read and agree to the big, black sign with yellow words, basically telling me that if anything happened to my car in the huge contraption I was going to risk driving through, Charlie’s wasn’t going to be responsible for any damages. I agreed, as in times before, handed over my debit card for payment, wished her a good rest of the day and headed the Tahoe in the direction of the open door to cleanness.

While waiting for the car wash attendant to direct me into the wheel stalls, I sat with this thought: I often find it hard to trust God to do and come through with the words He has spoken to me, yet I can casually, with great faith drive my Tahoe into a long, garage-like contraption with huge spinning and twirling brushes, draping rag strips slapping, blasts of water from every direction and fiery heat blowers. When I choose to enter this car wash journey and surrender my car (& my life) by willingly placing the gear-shift into neutral, I have no idea what will transpire inside the garage, nor possess any guarantee I’ll exit unscathed with a clean car, as hoped for.

Then it happened. Right in the middle of my experience, everything except the fiery heat blowers came to a sudden halt. I looked in front of me to see the trapped car preceding me sitting still, with owner inside, under a consistent siege of hot air blowing on it. In my rear-view mirror I witnessed the draping rag strips lying lifeless on top of the vehicle directly behind me. Here I was sitting still in my clean car waiting for something to happen. It felt like I got the good end of the stick because I was in-between. However, I quickly jolted back to the reality of being stuck and at the mercy of Charlie’s Car Wash employees to get movement re-instituted. My inner thoughts were screaming: “This isn’t how this is supposed to go! Get us out of here…NOW!”

After an extraordinarily long pause, familiar sounds of the car wash operation kicked back into gear. I could hardly wait to get through the fiery heat blowers and see the green light signaling me to re-gain control of the Tahoe by shifting into drive and get far away.

How many times do I put my hope, faith and trust in things and people that I can see? There have been more times than I care to count.

...for we walk by faith, not by sight... 2 Corinthians 5:7 ESV

I don’t believe God allowed my car wash experience to stop me from utilizing automatic car wash services, yet to remind me that His trustworthiness far exceeds that of a machine.

Guess what?!? My brother never saw the car while visiting in our home—it was in the garage!

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Listening

• Trust Me. (period)

• Before you ever enter a stalled car wash experience—I’m there with you.

• Willingly surrender your life to Me…RELAX!

Prayer

Lord, I want to trust you as certainly and quickly as I did Charlie’s Car Wash—going without knowing, yet believing Your words of salvation and constant presence. Amen.