As I told you last week in my blog about the comedy of errors we encountered on our 61st New Year’s Eve, we were VERY hungry after Donn’s key-losing incident. So I put Eat ‘n Park into our GPS restaurant category. It brought up quite a few Eat ‘n Parks, and I asked Donn which one he wanted me to enter.
“Do that one,” Donn pointed. “The street address is Waterfront and that’s the street address of our motel.”
I did as he asked, and we tried to follow the complicated directions our GPS gave us. On our first attempt, we missed one of the roads we needed to turn on, so we allowed the GPS to take us back the way we’d come and tried again. The second time, we missed another quick turn we were supposed to make, and once again the GPS took us back. (Remember, folks, this is Pittsburgh, and it’s dark!)
On our third attempt, we did everything right, I promise! We made all the right turns, but our surroundings were looking more and more desolate and uninhabited. And then in the middle of nowhere, Samantha (our GPS) sang out, “Arriving at Eat ‘n Park on your left.” The exact scenario we’d described earlier to the motel clerk!
Donn and I looked around in disbelief. “Unbelievable,” I said. Donn added, “There’s no Eat ‘n Park here and there never has been!”
Almost afraid to ask, I said, “What restaurant should we try next? I’m really hungry!”
After a little thought, Donn decided we’d put our motel address into our GPS and hope to pass a restaurant on the way to our motel. (Secretly, I was afraid the GPS would never get us back to our motel, and we’d have to find another place to stay even though our motel was paid!)
Eventually, we got back into civilization and found a steakhouse. I didn’t really want to eat something that heavy this late, but I thought, If there’s one restaurant here, surely there should be other restaurants nearby. So once again, I put Eat ‘n Park into our GPS. Sure enough several Eat ‘n Parks popped up—less than a mile away! We picked the closest one and ultimately discovered that it was about half a mile from our motel!
When we went into the restaurant and were seated, I recognized a family at the next table who had been in front of us during our tour at Phipps. They were finishing their dinner! Not surprising after all the adventures we’d had! As they left, their little girl kept waving at us and saying, “Happy New Year! I’ll see you tomorrow!” We certainly hoped that wasn’t prophetic.
As I thought about the comedy of errors we’d experienced this New Year’s Eve, I realized how similar it was to life. We can be cruising along, one minute praising the Lord that it didn’t “rain on our parade” when we suddenly find ourselves visited with one dilemma after another for no reason that we know of.
You may wonder why the God who answered our prayers and kept away the rain allowed Donn to lose his keys and allowed our GPS to take us into the middle of nowhere rather than to an Eat ‘n Park.
Very good questions to which we will never know the answers for sure. Perhaps it was a test—would we keep a good attitude even when we ran into situations where God hadn’t smoothed our path? Or had God delayed us so that we wouldn’t encounter something much worse than lost keys and a trip into the wilderness?
Although we may never know the “why” of this comedy of errors, this situation reminds me of a song Donn and I wrote many years ago:
Thank you for the flowers and thank you for the rain,
Thank you for the sunshine and thank you for the pain.
Thank you for the birds on wing and thank you for the times we sing.
Thank you, Lord, we love you, Lord, Thanks for everything.
I Thessalonians 5: 16-18 says, Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. I’m not saying those instructions are easy to follow, but the ups and downs of our lives will certainly be less dramatic if we make an effort to follow them. Someone once told me that while we can’t control our circumstances, we do have control over our attitudes.
Help us, Father, to thank you and praise you not only when life is going our way, but to maintain an attitude of gratitude even when we encounter speed bumps that we would rather avoid. Amen.