I will make it happen again

Okay, this is part two. If you have not read part one, then read part one. Because this is part two. And I just really don't want you to screw this up.

There is a very cool story that I will not relay in it's entirety. Suffice it to say it is very cool. It is a story about a man who lives in a town that is flooding. As the waters rise, he has a car, a boat, and eventually a helicopter all offer him rides out of the town. Each time he declines, saying 'God will rescue me'. Well, the man drowns in the flood, and in heaven he asks God what the hell happened? He probably doesn't use that exact phrasology, but I did, because it strikes me as funny. God says, 'I sent you a car, a boat, and a helicopter. What else do you want me to do?'.

The reason I love this story is because it is the summation of many people and their view on miracles. We expect God to show up in this Thunder cloud and do some sort of Houdini magic trick. Really though, God operates on a much more practical level than that. It doesn't mean that the crazy David Blaine stuff doesn't happen- but God is often pretty low-key with His miracles.

So let me really get to the heart of this whole post- and it all ties in, I swear! Back to the house situation (cue flashback effects, music), an opportunity came along to relieve the burden of our car payment and we took it. Even if the house thing falls through, it'll still be like $200 less per month that we have to pay on the car.

The only thing is that in order to get this going, I had to go all-in, so to speak, and put us in a couple week stretch of extreme financial tightness...as in, don't buy toilet paper, we'll just use all those carbon check thingys and credit card apps financial tightness. Of course, if you've ever had money, you know that this is a terrible place to be in ever, let alone to put yourself in on purpose. It's definitely a calculated risk,though- this should make it easier for us to qualify for the loan, and it will definitely be easier to make our month stretch to the end of the money.

The problem is that I had figured it out pretty much to where we would be okay as long as no other purchases or expenses came up. I had my calender, my calculator- right down to the day, we were good to go. HA. Yeah. Right.

Long story less long, I had bought something on Ebay a couple days before this decision had been made. Now, I knew this in my calculations, so that is not why it is an issue. It is an issue because stupid Paypal decided to push the payment through two days before I was figuring it was going to go through. Awesome! $19 overdraft fee! Plan! Gone!

So I had my employer (who is also my mother-in-law) pay me a day ahead of time, and I sold back a couple books that I was originally going to sell online (I ended up making $5 less than I would have selling them online, but the money was right away). This was on Tuesday- Tuesday right around 5 to be exact. We ran to the bank, made the deposit, and we were in the clear. Crisis averted.

Now earlier in the day (again, cue flashback effects, music) we had found out that there was going to be a barbecue at the church that night. Normally we don't go to the Tuesday night 'Connections' as it is called- but hey, free food, hanging with the friends, beautiful day, why not?

Well, about twenty minutes later when we got pulled over for not having a current license tab and an expired registration, we had a couple hundred reasons why not. I was furious. We hadn't gotten the re-up in the mail, so it had completely slipped our minds. In addition to having to get a new license tab/registration, Sara got a ticket. We had just averted a minor financial crisis, and now this? I was steamed at God, and I let Him know it. I let Sara know it. I was determined to let everybody know it.

But I'm a different person now than I have been. And when I got a few minutes to process it, I did. I talked to Sara about how I was feeling, and why I was feeling that way. I talked to God about the whole situation.

And what is the miracle here is that God has used this situation to teach me about trust, and about believing in Him. I will make it happen. Now, God has not divinely put the extra money in our account. There has been no Western Union angel delivering a check for the amount needed. Don't think, though, that God has not been in this.

There has been a couple little things- 'real-life' miracles. Sara got $20 back for turning in her music practice room key. A friend referred me to the bank where he works- I got $50 for free for setting up a checking account. The cool thing about this is that he just texted me out of the blue. Hmmm...

You know what the real miracle is though? I have peace in my heart about this situation. On paper it probably doesn't rate as a very powerful statement- if you know me and how I am with money though, then you have to realize that either I have snapped and gone off the deep end, or else there is something going on here that is powerful. I looked at the calender, and thought, 'Wow. We can do this'. And it's not a thing of 'wow, I way overreacted, because I obviously got this in the bag'. I know God is going to come through, and I'm really excited to see where I am at after this whole thing is all said and done.

I will make it happen.