Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Goodness and Mercy

Yesterday was not looking good sometime around 5:30 pm. As I was driving Jared over to where I live for a sort of small group gathering something in my truck started making a lot of noise. I feared the worst, a bent rod, bent valve, or an extremely worn valve guide that just wasn't happy anymore. Due to this unfortunate turn of events I was late to work this morning because my dad had to give me a ride. I also had to get picked up. I talked to a few people at work and one fella who's been around awhile suggested that I take a dowl rod or screw driver up to the valve cover to see if I can hear and pinpoint where the noise is coming from. I fired it up at home and my dad listened to it. I knew it was something on the exhaust side of the engine, but wasn't sure if it was internal or not cause it sounded like valve rattle. Turns out that it's actually in the exhaust itself. Could be a chunk of honeycomb material from the cat rattling around, or it could be a piece of carbon that broke free of an exhaust valve and can't get past the cat. Who knows?

So what does this have to do with goodness and mercy? Throughout the day I pray, and this was one of the things I've been lifting up continuously today. I've prayed with various people on it too. The Lord has answered my prayers. I asked that this would be something relatively minor and a quick and easy fix, and I'm almost positive that this will be a quicker and cheaper than the alternative. If it's a cat, then those get a bit pricey, but the labor is in my hands, not some machine shops. The Lord showed mercy on me and was good to me. Maybe I'm giving the Lord credit for something He didn't have His hands in? Possibly, but all good and perfect things come from Him, and this is certainly good, relative to what it could have been. I can still drive my truck, even though it'll be a bit noisy. I praise the Lord for the blessings He's lavished upon me.

Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.

1 comment:

The Sham Chef said...

Amen!

The Commander
http://lonnie.family-fun.net