Patience

Patience

Our younger son Jamie had just graduated from college and returned to live at home while beginning his master’s degree here in Atlanta.  While attending school full-time, he was working as many hours as possible in the maintenance department of our church.  While he was away at school, my husband had lost his job with a Swedish-owned corporation when we refused a move – after much prayer, with both of our sons, to Sweden.

Rick had worked multiple jobs after losing his position, but it was difficult going from the Vice-President of Engineering to starting over.  We had to downsize our home, and money was very tight – so tight that we had been unable to provide a car for Jamie.  When Jamie graduated from high school, he was on scholarship at a private school in another state.  We had given him the choice of either a car for graduation or help with his education.  He chose the education, leaving home with no vehicle and very little money.  Yet, God remained faithful. 

While Jamie was away at school, he was blessed to have two roommates who had both given him keys to their cars to use when they weren’t.  Actually, through God’s providence and his roommates’ generosity, he had driven much better cars than either his dad or I for the four years he was away.  Upon his return home, having only two vehicles with three working adults had become a difficulty for the family, but money – or the lack of it – seemed to make all options unrealistic.

Together, as a family, we had begun to pray about the genuine need, not desire, of another vehicle for Jamie to have to get to both school and work, which involved many very early and still later hours.  One Saturday morning, Jamie asked his dad to go with him to look at some used cars just to get an idea of what he needed to save and what he could afford with his frugally-paying maintenance job. 

After they left, I began to pray for them, confessing to the Lord that we would be content with whatever He chose to do, even if it were nothing, In Philippians 4:11, Paul teaches that we are to be content in whatever state we find ourselves.  For me, the first lesson regarding this verse involved the states of Texas versus Georgia.  As I prayed, I asked God to help us to know if this additional vehicle was a genuine need or an optional desire.  I also asked that God would demonstrate, in someway, how He would have Jamie, or us, pay for the vehicle, as we desired to honor every debt.  The only thing left to do was to wait upon the Lord (Psalm 123:2)

After several hours, I heard a vehicle pulling into the driveway.  I glanced out the window, not recognizing the small, white Ford Ranger pickup which sat there.  The door opened, and Jamie got out of the truck, walking slowly up the stairs and through the front door.  “Jamie,” I asked, “what are you doing in that new pickup?"

His response?  “I’m not sure, Mom.  I was looking in the used car lot when a salesman walked up to me.  I explained what I wanted.  As Dad and I were standing there, the salesman asked if I were a college graduate and if I have a job.  When I told him yes to both questions, he asked if he could show us this truck.  He explained that the dealer had a one-day, cash back sale going for just graduating college seniors who are employed.  Somehow, the cash back totaled the down payment, tax, title, and license for the truck, and the payments are the same as the used car I liked.  I signed the paperwork, they cleaned up the truck, and they let me have it.  It’s mine – well, mine and the bank’s.  How is that possible?  I walked into that car lot with no money, just to see what I could afford, and, Mom, I walked out with a new truck that I can afford with my paycheck.  How could that happen?”

Jeremiah 33:3 – Call unto Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, about which you don’t even have a clue (my own translation)!

God does, indeed, know our needs, and, according to Philippians 4:19, He will supply them, not always according to our schedule, but according to His.

Jamie loved that truck, naming it Patience, because he had learned to wait on the Lord who provided that vehicle in a miraculous way.  He drove it while earning his master’s, through med school, and into his residency, until he thought it gave up the ghost, only to meet his old truck repaired by the mechanic to whom he had traded it in.  To this day, Jamie knows the life lesson God taught him with Patience.

© 2011 Gerry Sisk

(06/08/11)