God Stories

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You don’t really want to hear another story do you?

The economy is bad.  The election was different.  The weather is unseasonably warm. Gas prices are under $2.00. The stock market (legalized gambling for some) is way down. Nobody has credit.  Everybody is in debt.  House prices (legalized gambling for some) have plummeted.  SO MUCH NEWS. SO LITTLE TIME.

Do you want to hear some good news? 

Here is a story.

Stuck in the mud

Have you ever felt like you’re just stuck in the mud?  It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t see it coming. It just happened.  Well it happened to me on Tuesday evening.  We were supposed to be at a show at Seton Hospital in Austin, Tx on Tuesday and Wednesday.  I arrived there on Tuesday morning in plenty of time to find out it was nearly impossible to use the loading dock due to the construction at the Hospital and the out-parking facilities were full.  We tried to back into the dock, tying up traffic on two intersections and then hand carried over 50 totes and boxes of product into the room (the wasn’t enough room for the dolly). We needed to move the vehicle and trailer before the show would start so I had to find parking.  After an hour of circling the hospital and heroic (but futile) help from the volunteers to solve the riddle – we determined there was NO ROOM AT THE INN  and there was no stable.  We parked back in the dock, blocking rush hour traffic, and carried our 50 totes and boxes back into the trailer … in the rain!

We left apologetically but everyone understood the issues. Since it was Veterans Day, we gave one of the USS California HoldingCrosses as the raffle gift for the fund raiser.  They were in tears as I described the story of God’s planning of trees that would be used to fight for freedom by a country that wasn’t even born yet.  The teak wood pre dates our Constitution!

Off to the Houston metroplex we drive.  The rains came. The lightening came. The winds blew. By the time we got close to where we planned to stop for the night, it had already rained over 4 inches.  We couldn’t find the place we were staying based on the directions we had.  We stopped to plug in the computer and check directions a different way and found out their map was incorrect. No problem. Make a u-turn and go back 4 miles.  OOPS!! A sink hole.  Down into the mud about 4-5 inches. No we’re stuck in the mud.

Satan wants us to be stuck in the mud. He wants us to be discouraged. He wants us to give up. He wants us to curse God. He wants us to focus on the circumstances. He wants us to doubt God.

Here we are at 10 pm at night in our old motorhome with our trailer hooked up and stuck in mud up to the exhaust pipe. 

Along comes a family.  Brian sees our trailer and sees our predicament.  He comes over to the driver side window and asks if I need help.  I told him that I called for a towing service and they should arrive within the hour.  I rolled up my pant legs and took off my shoes to go outside.  The side where we get out of the motorhome was the side where the water and mud was.   I open the door and get off the steps and sink knee deep into the water and muck.  This is a worse problem than I thought.

I talk with Brian and he doesn’t have anything to actually pull me out with … with him.  He says he’s only 5 miles away and if I need anything or if the towing company doesn’t show call him! He’ll figure a way to get us out.

He was so kind to stop and offer moral support and physical support if needed.  I went back into the MH and got my personal Olive HoldingCross.  It’s the one I’ve carried with me for over 5 years.  I told Brian I had something for him.  I tossed the HoldingCross from the door opening to him.  As he caught it, I saw his face.  He smiled at the cross and then looked at me.

“I wondered what HoldingCross meant” he said.  He began to tell me he was coming back from a revival meeting in Huntsville, Tx.  There was a tent meeting going on there and there were 30 – 40 people each night giving their live

s to Jesus.  He was so excited to talk about saving souls.  He was so excited to tell me story after story of God intervening in peoples lives to be saved.  He was in tears as he held the HoldingCross.  I told him this cross was made of olive wood from where Jesus was born.  He just lost it and was all choked up with emotion. I began telling him the story of how The HoldingCross started and he cried some more. “We know about hospice”. He said.  “My dad went through that and it was wonderful”.

Well, here we were stuck in the mud talking about Jesus.

Brian left to take his family home and wait for my call, if needed. 

About 30 minutes later, the tow truck came.  Phillip was the driver.  Just as he pulled up, the sky opened up and it poured.  Have you ever seen horizontal lightning? I jumped out of the motorhome and waded to his truck. We sat there in the cab. He had a weather monitor and GPS in the truck. We watched the storm go by, physically and digitally.

The rain finally slowed to a trickle after about 30 minutes and we decide to work on getting us unstuck.

It’s now midnight.  We’re out of the mud and back on the road toward our destination.