My family and I are visiting Wichita, Kansas where our son, Elijah lives. For a few weeks prior to our departure, our van kept acting up with an intermittent shudder. I had some processes I could undertake to stop the shudder, but the shudder was becoming more frequent and more violent. I spoke to one of our mechanics, Ascen, on Friday. He had looked at the van previously and wondered why it was becoming more frequent. He considered I might have a torque converter issue. He told me to try some \u201cShudder Guard\u201d and see if that fixed it\u2026it did not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All weekend, I stressed and fretted in my head about what I should do to assure our van would get us to Wichita and home. I prayed for God to heal the van (I think I can pray for that, right?). On Sunday, our family drove to a church where I was preaching and I thought it was getting better on the way, but as the day progressed, the shudder returned. As I lay down on Sunday night, I was defeated and did not know what to do. Do I find a van to rent? Do I try to find someone who would let me borrow their car? Do I drive the van and trust the Lord will get us there?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Monday morning, I went back to my mechanics, Ascen and Danny, and Ascen rode in the van with me. We drove for 15-minutes, and it barely acted up. I laughed and told Ascen, \u201cJust like my kids. Get them to the doctor when they have been sick and they are \u2018all better.\u2019\u201d It shuddered lightly on two occasions. When we returned to the shop, Ascen felt near the center cap on the wheels and suddenly our problem seemed to show itself. The heat radiating from the passenger front center cap and lug nuts was far greater than any of the other wheels. He said, \u201cI think you have a caliper sticking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I spoke with Danny about the possibilities of getting the van in to be worked on before we left on Tuesday. I knew they had a full schedule all week and Monday had not been a good day for finding the right parts and problems seemed to be escalating. Danny said they would try and on Monday evening, my van was returned\u2026fixed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Community in the Kingdom of God has been on my mind a lot recently. In the body of Christ and the Kingdom of God, we are called to take care of one another and to share our gifts in our daily lives. In Galatians 6:2, Paul writes, \u201cCarry each other\u2019s burdens<\/em><\/strong>, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ<\/em>.\u201d The burden I was carrying was heavy on my heart. I recognize I was becoming less patient in my interactions with family members and friends. I was irritable. I was worried. I was trying to figure out the problem from my own knowledge to no avail. Yet, in my life there are two brothers in Christ and great friends who have the gift and the tools to bring about resolution to my issue. They were able to carry the burden; I only needed to surrender my need to them so they could use the gifts God has given to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I give God thanks for brothers and sisters in Christ who are willing to use their gifts to help other people. Within the Kingdom of God, we are called to \u201ccarry one another\u2019s burdens\u201d and to \u201cpray for one another\u201d (James 5:16). God uses the hands, feet, and talents of people to bring about healing, wholeness, completion, and encouragement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How is God seeking to use your gifts to help other people? Where do you need to surrender your need to someone with whom God has given gifts to participate in carrying or removing your burden?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prayer: Lord, thank you for people like Danny and Ascen who have gifts to solve mechanical problems. Thank you for people who are obedient to your call to bear burdens and remove burdens. Help me be obedient to use my gifts in your service each day. In Jesus\u2019 name. Amen.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My family and I are visiting Wichita, Kansas where our son, Elijah lives. For a few weeks prior to our departure, our van kept acting up with an intermittent shudder. I had some processes I could undertake to stop the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6376,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/livingtheadventure.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Blank1-1-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C4&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingtheadventure.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingtheadventure.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingtheadventure.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingtheadventure.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingtheadventure.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/livingtheadventure.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingtheadventure.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingtheadventure.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingtheadventure.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingtheadventure.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}