Without getting too technical--I don't know enough to be very technical--& staying brief (I'm not good at poking a cell phone) here is an update & some further thoughts, maybe lessons.
Life has parallels with a journey. It is a frequent trope in writing & cinema. The journey Kathy & I are presently on is epic in proportion, at least for us. We are incorporating family along the way. I’m starting this at my brother's home and finishing it at my son’s. The fact that our trip is taken in recognition of our 50th Anniversary, makes it especially symbolic.
I'm not the dumbest guy around when it comes to cars & trucks, but I couldn't hire myself out as a mechanic, either. My knowledge about auto mechanics & my adequate, but limited, financial situation have struck a pretty good balance over the years. Partly by using my limited knowledge, & a willingness to get my hands greasy, I've saved thousands of dollars over the years. But on this occasion, I was 2,000 + miles away from home. I wasn't sure what was wrong & I had no way to fix it.
All I was sure of was that something was wrong--VERY WRONG. I had worn out both rear tires on the car in about 3,500 miles—new tires, on freshly aligned wheels. In case you don't know, that's bad.
Ok. I realize that there are very bad problems in life and in the world. I also know this isn't one of them. Nobody died, and no countries were invaded. Still, my problem was at least a nuisance.
As I intimated in the previous post, relationships were key in reaching a solution.
1) Even though I was far away from my safety net, I still knew it was there. Kathy and I have family and friends for whom the, "If you need anything . . ." statement is much more than idle, polite-talk. These folk have our back even when our back is far away. You need to have that kind of people in your network. The best way to have the kind of person who will show up for you, as part of your team, is to be willing to show up for them. Don't take such folk for granted. Cherish them. In mine & Kathy's lives, you know who you are. Thank you.
2) Know which friend to call on for which purpose. When I noticed the rubber that meets the road was being rubbed off by the road that meets rubber at least 10-times faster than it should be, I was pretty panicky. "What am I going to do?" A friend I contacted didn't immediately solve my problem. In fact his first stab at it was wrong (Keep in mind he was 2,000-miles away & was trying to figure something out bàsed on my lame description.) Wrong though he may have been, the direction in which he pushed me was exactly right. "Howard, this, isn't unsolvable. It's not caused by some kind of a vulcanized demon. Calm down! We'll figure it out." That's not anywhere close to what my friend actually said, but it is a reasonable summary of what I heard. It was exactly what I needed to hear, even though some of his message wasn't what I wanted hear.
Boy, do we need friends who know the truth & will tell us the truth. I ask myself, "Am I a person who is receptive to truth? Do I communicate to others that I am someone who is committed to living by the truth, so they can be confident that shooting straight with me isn't a waste of time?"
3) The third part of wrestling my problem to the ground involved 2 people I had never met & will probably never meet again. Yet, some relational skills that I, by God's grace, have learned over the years helped me a lot.
All of us want to be good at what we do, and we appreciate it when our expertise is recognized. This syndrome can easily become pride, but, at it's best, it's just simple honesty. "I know what I'm doing, and if you will recognize that I can probably help you."
It was Friday. The manager of the tire shop, Armando, deftly handled a steady stream of demands, from customers, inquirers, shop personnel, suppliers, folk in a hurry, others who had been waiting a while. I saw him make a promise, get interrupted, quickly move to field the interruption, only to be interrupted again. I watched as he triaged it all. I tested him in my mind. "Will he get back to that promise?"
He did.
I saw him cycle through this scenario several times. Not only did he pass my quiz, he, from time to time, would insert some responsibility, outside the scope of my observation, into the flow. Kind of like a guy juggling chainsaws and giving directions to the nearest McDonalds, all the while keeping the saws buzzing and flying. Not only was he good, he was good in 2 languages, and humorous in both.
"Armando, I know it's not your job to solve my problem, but I sure could use the benefit of your expertise."
In about 90 seconds Armando kindly told me what I didn’t want to hear, what I needed to hear, and then went on to suggest a solution. A friend of mine, who is with the Lord, now, used to say, “It is hard to beat a man at his own trade.” By appealing to this man whom I had never met—at the time I didn’t even know his name—on the level of his competence, and asking him to help me out of kindness rather than demanding that he stop everything and adopt my problem as his own, a micro friendship began.
Armando is about the age of my sons. The first step in his solution led to an encounter with Benito. Hanging around a tire shop all day gets pretty boring. I went outside to stretch my legs and let the New Mexico sun bake some of the AC-induced chill out of my bones. It didn’t take long. From my vantage point outside the alignment bay, I could see Benito using his flashlight, searching under my car for something. Not a good sign. Seeing me outside, Benito invited me to join him under the car. He showed me the critical part, then he took me to his computer screen. Two things were apparent, even to a non-expert like me.
1) The big red box on the screen fairly screamed, “Something’s not right!”
2) The “thing-a-majig” (sorry for the technical language) that the computer said was supposed to be on my car, the thing that needed to be adjusted to make the red box go away, wasn’t there. Further searching in the computer and consultation with a manual offered no help. Further examination of the part revealed “FOMOCO” (Ford Motor Company) stamped on the part. Whatever the problem was, or wasn’t, came from the factory. It wasn’t some after-market add on.
Benito is a guy closer to my age than his boss’s. I sensed by the way he searched for an answer and the way he listened to my suggestions that he is the automotive equivalent of the orthopedic surgeon to whom I owe my mobility. I remember Dr. Shuler saying to the resident with whom he was working, “We hate to meet a break we can’t fix.” I figure Benito had been doing wheel alignments back when computers were only things one read about. He didn’t want this thing to beat him. My problem became Benito’s problem to solve.
In our world we find many things that about which we disagree. We get a lot more done on common ground, though.
Benito and Armando got their heads together. They called an unknown ally at the local Ford garage. He put them in touch with an even more unknown Ford alignment guru who shared the secret that got me back on the road.
Suffice to say, unknown to the computer, my car has a funky and hidden means of adjustment. Later when Benito brought the print-out from the computer (sans red-boxes) showing me the tire-eating problem was solved, I could see the satisfaction on his face. We live in a world full of problems. The image of God within us compels us to fix them when we can. When we are able to restore a measure of shalom to this messed up world—even if it is just a properly turned bolt on he belly of a Ford—we feel the “ahh-ness” that sin and the fall stole from the world. Though it is fleeting, it feels good.
But, the fallen-ness of the world was not finished with its peace thievery that day. Shortly after the unseen alignment guru pointed Benito to the hidden adjustment that would correct the pigeon-toed condition of my Ford, word came that the truck that was delivering the replacements for my two worn-to-the-belt rear tires was broken down. Another truck had been dispatched.
At this point, I’ll cut to the chase. As the staff was closing up the store for the weekend Kathy and I got back on the road.
Perhaps you are amused with my tale. I hope so. But, is there more? Again, I’m hopeful.
To use the words that Cornelius Plantinga used as the title for his great book, clearly this world is “Not The Way It’s Supposed To Be.” Shalom, in big and little ways, is snatched away at every turn. Yet what Kathy and I have seen on this trip confirms that in spite of that we can still see God’s creative hand. Beauty still abounds. We saw that in the luxurious fields of grain, the magnificent sunrises and sunsets, the rising moon that looked like we would drive right into it in just few miles, the magnificent mountains and the incredible canyons. We felt an Edenic “ahh” as we stared up at the Ponderosa Pines, watched the Aspens shimmer in the breeze, or heard and saw the ocean waves lap onto the shore. We were reminded, though, that the greatest repository of God’s good things shines from the hearts of people when they do what is right. Let’s thank the Lord when we see that. Let’s live that way. And, let’s share the Shalom-restoring Good News of Jesus, which will one day restore this world to the way it should be, and, because of the common grace of God, poured out like rain on all people, gives us moments of peace down here where the rubber meets the road.
