It has been a HECK of a weekend. It started with our air conditioner being out all week—but not to worry! $10k and 10 hours of labor later, we got a new a/c installed on Friday while we were watching Tommy’s basketball games. A blessing. It was a quiet truth and somewhat overshadowed by a busy and EXPENSIVE day, but a blessing indeed.
Saturday was another busy day of basketball and spending money (some fun, some necessary). We got home late and as I was finally going to sleep (at 1am), we got a notification our electricity at the Towanda store had gone out. Sigh. I went back to sleep expecting the issue to be resolved quickly like it usually is. When I woke up at 6am to see Nick off, as he was pulling out of the driveway, I realized we had never received a notification of the electricity coming back on. I called him to see what we should do—he turned around and came back to help his dad (who was thankfully staying the weekend with us) load a generator. Tom and I drove to the Towanda store to plug our coolers into the generator since we had no idea when electricity would come back on. A blessing. It was a quiet truth and somewhat overshadowed by the exhaustion of little sleep and worry about losing thousands of dollars of product, but a blessing indeed that we had a generator and a dad willing to help.
Then Nick texted that his tire started losing air on the way to the airport. He was able to stop at a gas station to put air in it. It held long enough to get him to the airport in time for his flight. A blessing. It was a quiet truth and somewhat overshadowed by knowing his return flight would bring him back to a car with a flat tire, but a blessing indeed he made it safely and in time for his flight.
After getting home from hooking up the generator, I woke the kids up and then felt a nudge to stop and have my Bible time before I started getting ready. A loud thought easily dismissed it and said to me, “you don’t have time for that.” I started to walk out of my bedroom and God nudged me again. I turned and grabbed my Bible and said to the kids, “We need to pray the electricity comes back on in Towanda!” The literal SECOND those words left my mouth, I got a text that Evergy had fixed the problem and all the electricity was back on. A blessing. A quiet truth.
I went to let the dogs out and sat down to read for about 10 minutes and was so glad to feel God’s peace and presence. After finishing my reading, I sat my Bible down and went to call the dogs in. They were nowhere to be found. After 20 minutes of alternating getting ready and yelling for the dogs, we finally HAD to leave. My father in law was driving separately, so I let him know they were gone but would hopefully turn up by the time we got home. We loaded up the car with all the things and headed to Wichita. My father in law texted me 10 minutes later that the dogs had been secured. A blessing. It was a quiet truth and somewhat overshadowed at the frustration of running late because we had to spend time looking for them but a blessing indeed.
As we were driving to Wichita, I told the kids that the devil was working overtime to try to ruin our day. We decided to list out loud the things that we were thankful for—I wanted to take them from quiet truths to loud praises! We spent the next few minutes sharing…we’re thankful for the ability to pay for a new air conditioner, family to help out, all of us being healthy, making good friends, not losing any product or having to close for business in Towanda, Nick making it safely to and on his flight. Right as we finished up, we crossed the railroad tracks about 2 miles from our destination. I had just said something along the lines of, “NOT TODAY, SATAN!”
Then my low-tire pressure light came on.
All I could do was laugh! Sometimes it comes on but I can drive around on the tire for another 2 days with just a little air added. Not today. It kept dropping lower…..and lower….and lower. We just prayed we would at least make it to our destination and on time. And we did! A blessing. A quiet truth somewhat overshadowed by the fact that I rolled in on about 10 psi in our tire, but we.made.it. We went inside for another basketball game and I put the tire out of my mind so I could enjoy watching Tommy play.
After an hour of basketball, it was time to deal with the tire. I called one company (because of course we didn’t have the right tool to take off my lug nuts ourselves) who requested pre-payment be sent to his personal Venmo in the amount of $100. Uhhhh….hard pass. I ended up getting the Happy Hooker towing company to come change it. I’m sure we looked a spectacle sitting on the pavement in the shade of my Yukon while my kids yell, “When is the hooker truck coming??” not having any idea what that sounded like! They went with their papa to get lunch for all of us while we waited and came back juuuust in time to see the “hooker truck” pull in and announce it’s arrival to everyone in the parking lot. The tow-truck driver got my tire changed out just in time for me to head inside for Tommys last game. A blessing. A quiet truth somewhat overshadowed by having to sit in a parking lot baking in the sun while listening to your kids yell about hookers, but a blessing indeed.
I guess my point is…I can look back on my day and say that it was really bad. I can let the lies be loud and tell me I should be upset, annoyed, bummed, irritated, grumpy. Or I can look back on my day and focus on the quiet truths—that God provided in EVERY way. We got everything done we needed to get done, got everywhere we needed to be and had plenty of physical and prayer support from family and friends along the way. In the grand scheme of life, all of these things were small...irrelevant in a world that suffers from so much more. But the small things are what the enemy uses to start that subtle shift of our focus from the truth to the lies.
As the wise Billy Graham said, “It’s easier not to be a Christian in the world because the devil might leave you alone. The moment you receive Christ as your savior, you’re in for it. Unless you live on your knees and live in the scripture and keep your guard up and have your spiritual armor on at all time.”
The truth is always quieter than the lies. It’s easier to hear what’s loud….but if we can just be still….if we can just shut out the noise, it might be quiet enough for us to hear the truth.
