A couple of days ago I (Graham…don’t worry Susan will blog soon!) was trying to get everything together for my Hebrew class. I had a presentation due and I did not want to miss out on the quiz at the beginning of class. Being sick has zapped me of a lot of my strength and energy, and some of the small duties required for my class have become a bit heavier because of it.Though my Hebrew professor told me not to worry about coming to class, I decided to push through so I wouldn’t miss a quiz or my presentation.
I spent two nights before working on my translation that was due for that class so it would free me up the night before the class to work on my presentation. Our presentations are basically going through a verse with that class from the text we are translating, specifically explaining its grammar and theology. To my great fortune I got the verse that only contains four words in Hebrew! Awesome. However, Scripture is a deep ocean and found myself going deeper than I had expect, which meant that I was swimming for quite awhile. Not only that, formatting Hebrew on a word document can be a time consuming monster.
The next day, the day it was due, I worked in the morning and tried to get some time at the library to finish up my presentation. It seemed like one thing after another kept me from getting to the library and even at the library I did not get as much done as I had hoped (c’est la vie). I had about twenty minutes before class started and when I pulled up the document only to find that the Library at Southeastern had not invested the money in buying the Hebrew version of Microsoft to ensure the fonts didn’t change.
Admittedly I hit panic mode and decided to print it at home. I finished typing most of my presentation, called Susan on the way to get her to boot up the computer and printer. I only had fifteen minutes. She didn’t answer the phone. I rush home, run upstairs totally ignoring my mother-in-law’s request for me to wash bottles, booted up the computer, got the printer ready, and my wife tries to call me. I respond with a quick text that I didn’t have time. The computer came to life and I thought to myself, “I am going to make it!” I get a text from Susan. I ignored it. There was no time because it was game time! I see my document light up the screen with that beautiful Hebrew font. I am about to print when my phone rings again. It is Susan. I pick up and she says, “We have a flat tire.”
In that moment, which wasn’t my best of moments I thought of a thousand scenarios where I could still get to my class, take my quiz, and hand in my presentation. But the weight of those thousand scenarios didn’t measure up to that one scenario, the right scenario, of going to help my wife. I said, “I’ll be right there.”
Even changing the tire was an event that I won’t go into, but in summary I ended up using two jacks for the van, got blood on my face, and a piece on the bottom of the van broke making the vehicle fall two inches before getting caught, scaring us all half to death.
Basically this story is a good metaphor for our season in life right now. I have had all these grandiose expectations on how life should look right now, needs to look right now, and I find myself having to adapt to the reality which is our lives during this season. God’s grace is sufficient and perfected in weaknesses. It is good to learn to take joy in His strength over mine. It is such a good journey for which I am so thankful even if I don’t respond the best in the moment. It forces me to trust the Lord and focus on my own faithfulness to His Kingdom. Right now we are running on a spare in more ways then one, but it is all we need to get where we need to go for right now.
Quick Update: I am on the other side of the mountain of my sickness, getting better by the hour. Susan is at the top of the mountain and hopefully will join me on this side of things. It still seems like the girls have not made an ascent yet (I am guessing the mountain analogy is breaking down by now), but please pray that they will continue to be protected from our sickness. Thanks for all the intercessions for our family! We feel the answer to those prayers.
The Michaels 