One Frustrating Night

So I've been slack again in posting....so much is happenned, but too much to write about. This is going to be a pretty random post.

So let me reflect about one of the most frustrating nights I've had in a long time.

We had just finished a great week in Oklahoma, doing some marketing for Sky Ranch's camp site in Quapaw called Cave Springs. You could hardly call it marketing though. We were able to meet with some amazing youth pastors and deacons and just talk to them about their ministry and ask how we could help them out. By far the most gratifying and God glorifying marketing I think I could get involved in.

Craziness starts:

We started our 5 hour drive back to Texas at 8pm on a Thursday, because we all had stuff to do that weekend and wanted to get some sleep on Friday. I offered to take the first leg of driving since I hadn't done a lot that week, and was actually looking forward to getting some miles in with the van. Probably should have opted to sleep....

We started out by going to the world's largest McDonalds. Don't ask me why it is in the middle of OK on a turnpike....but it intruiged us so we went. We got friendly with the servers there and got into a bit of a conversation with them. They found out I was Australian, and like many, made several jokes about our humble little island.....you know, the usual: kangaroos, crocodiles, Steve Irwin. I never get upset or angry at these. They come so regularly, its now become kind of a challenge to anticipate which joke will come next after they get started.

For some reason that night, however, I was a little disturbed by it. Maybe its because they just started on the jokes before they even introduced themselves. Once again, this never really bothers me, but for some reason it stuck with me a little long, so I made a little effort to stall at the counter and get to know them better. I came to find out that the man that was serving me was gay, which again was no problem to me. But again, it started to really disturb me once he made a couple of borderline comments about Priscilla Queen of the Desert (an Aussie movie), and didgeridoos that made me feel like he was flirting. When we left a lady that worked at McDonald's chased us down and asked me for my phone number, which at first I laughed at (for many reasons), but it later just fuelled the distrubance that was going on in me.

As we started driving off, I just kept reflecting upon what happenned at our "little" stay at the world's largest McDonalds. This only turned my little disturbance into a lot of hatred. I can honestly say that my hatred wasn't directed in any one area; my whole emotional state just felt exactly what it feels like when you hate something. And I couldn't pin-point it at all. It got so frustrating that in a brief moment, I felt the sudden urge to have someone to pray for me. But because everyone in the van was having a fun time and joking with each other and because my heart was stirring so far in the opposite direction....i let the prayer request pass.

What happenned next can be summed up in 4 succinct statements

• Got a speeding ticket - 73 in a 55


• Had the headlights automatically turn off while going 65mph on a pitch black highway


• Ran out of gas (At 12:30 am. Had to wait an hour for a wrecker to come. He wasn't happy)


• Got home at 4am and smashed a glass candle warmer on the floor. Woke 4 people up.

Was I getting punished by God? Of course not........but it definately felt like it, at least for a brief moment. It was one of those nights where I felt incredibly like Bruce Almighty just after he drove his car into the light post at the beginning of the movie. Maybe God was trying to tell me something, but I have no idea what it was. Maybe it was just a spiritual attack, and I was caught off guard. Maybe it will just make a good story one day. Who knows. Im still baffled by that night.

But one really cool thing happenned today that God must be given ALL the glory for. I called the police department in Oklahoma to inquire about paying for the speeding ticket to get it taken off my record. I'd had a pretty hectic/stressful day up to that point and the last thing I wanted to do was get depressed about how much this ticket was going to cost to get taken off my record. I talked to an older lady whom after I inquired about the ticket asked me in a pretty gruff voice:

"How fast were you going?"

Reluctantly I told her. I asked her what my options were for taking a defensive driving course on the off chance that her gruff voice was just a mask for a heart of gold. How right I was!

"Well normally you would have to see a judge, but you've caught me in a good mood. Just sign the ticket, send in the check, and I'll ammend it for you."

PRAISE GOD!!!! I didn't know such ladies existed in a police department. I kind of feel like driving up to Oklahoma just to give her a hug! She totally made my day and made me forget about the intense morning....

Isn't it great how God works? I've been reading in Philippians how Paul, when in jail, would say stuff like: "but I know that through your prayers and help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happenned to me will turn out for my deliverance" (1:19). I wonder how a guy could remain that positive in jail. Then I realize after experiences like this, he probably wasn't. He was probably mad and frustrated just like me; but he knew, above all those emotional arrows, that God was soveriegn. That He had a plan. Even for a guy in a cell. Even for a guy who had a bad night. That's why He's my Savior.