Have you heard the story about Ryan’s transmission going out? Some of you have, but for those that haven’t heard it yet prepare to be amazed!
Ryan and I decided to take his car to go grocery shopping one evening. As we started down the road I heard a funny noise. I told Ryan to listen but he couldn’t hear it. When we got on the highway it became very audible – it was a high pitch and sounded like a little remote-controlled car was driving next to us. We made it safely to the store and back home, but just as we pulled into the garage the transmission went out! We couldn’t go forward or backward – nothing.
Had this happened this time last year it would have been no problem to have it towed to the dealer, fix/replace the transmission, and we’d be on our way. But no, it had to happen at this point in time. Zero extra money each month, no cash savings, and debt looming over our heads. (Wasn’t it enough that we just started taking a financial class at church? We’ve got a recovery plan to get out of debt, and we’ve committed our money to God, but seriously! Now we have to worry about car repairs?) We had just let our AAA expire, and it allowed us free towing. Ryan’s car was second-hand and no longer under warranty, so no help there on paying for a new transmission. We had absolutely no idea where the money would come from to fix this car. We had resigned to leaving it in the garage until further notice.
As part of the financial class I mentioned above, we had to fill out a Quit Claim Deed saying that we gave up possession of our home, cars, money, collections, music instruments, etc., and gave it all to the Lord. When we walked in the kitchen that evening we saw it on the refrigerator and Ryan jokingly said “I hope God has a plan for fixing His car!”
Out of curiosity Ryan decided to get our car insurance papers. We weren’t very hopeful, because insurance normally doesn’t cover maintenance issues. It turns out that they do pay for towing, at no cost to us! Ok…so we could get the car towed to the dealer, but then what? We still couldn’t pay for the repairs. Ryan had the car towed to the dealer to see what our options were – maybe they had a payment plan (we were really hopeful). They diagnosed the car and said that it needed a whole new transmission. When they pulled up our file they noticed that when we bought the car we had purchased an extended warranty – and that it covered the cost of a new transmission! Not only that, but the warranty provided a rental car for 5 days!
There are so many lessons in this true story, but we recognized this as an exercise in trust. We had forgotten that we had purchased that extended warranty – but God knew. Once we committed our belongings into His ownership, God provided. “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment” 1 Timothy 6:17.
