Thursday, August 14, 2014

When life hands you lemons, God makes lemonade!

About a week ago, our car got totaled. Yes, the lovely Batmobile that took us on many adventures is no more. It was just a minor fender-bender, but the car in front of ours was a big pick-up, and our little car crumbled like nobody’s business. My husband and I have been discovering how life without a car-when we were used to having a car previously-is definitely a bit of an adjustment. Even though many people in Steubenville-longtime residents and students alike-don’t have cars, having that lovely mode of transportation is wonderful. You can drive to St. Peter’s downtown. You can drive to Aldi and Wal-Mart. You can drive to the library. And you can even drive outside of Steubie on day trips! All of a sudden, we lost our car, so all of these things that we used to do frequently are a bit out-of-the picture. In the midst of the schedule alterations we’re forced to make, however, there have been so many abundant blessings from God in all of this!

God provides. Really, I know it’s a bit cliché to always say, “Oh, God will provide,” and as such, many people may disbelieve it. But He really does! For example, when Jacob called me up after the car got totaled, he was stuck 40ish minutes away, and I needed to find him a ride back to Steubenville. Since the first people who came to my mind all had 6-8 kids (many of them quite young, so I felt bad asking them), I had no clue what to do. On a sudden burst of inspiration, I called a household sister, but she was at work—so she volunteered her boyfriend (who I had never met before) and he dropped everything to spend the next few hours helping my husband and I out. Also, when I called the Adoration coordinator at St. Peter’s (since we could no longer commit to our hour), I had thought she would be very disappointed that she’d have to hunt up someone else to take our hour. Instead, she (even though she doesn’t know us) immediately started volunteering her time to shuttle us back-and-forth places if we needed it! We’ve also had friends and other students selflessly volunteer rides for us. God really provides all the time!

More time with my husband! Since my husband can’t make the long drive to work everyday, he’s going to start working remotely (which he had planned to do during school). So, I get to spend more time during the day with him, which is so much fun!

Poverty! I think a lot of people take certain possessions for granted (like phones, computers, cars, showers, houses, etc.). But living without a car is doable. Not always the most fun, but it can be done! It’s been a wonderful way to focus on the gifts that God gives us and be detached in regards to possessions-to have poverty of spirit, even when we own different things. And getting to walk everywhere seems very Franciscan to me, which is awesome J

Budgeting. This whole car thing forced us to get down to the nitty-gritty details of our budget, which has been wonderful and quite a blessing!

Exciting Adventures. Not having a car brings on a whole range of adventures that wouldn’t of happened otherwise. I could have passed on the whole stalker-incident last week (basically, I was being stalked by a creepy guy in a van-moral of the story: make sure my cell phone is easily accessible at all times in case that happens again!), but other great things have happened.  For example, on Sunday we had to go to Mass on campus instead of St. Peter’s, since it was a lot easier to walk up to FUS. Well, as we reached the chapel, we ran into a good friend of ours from Wisconsin, who we haven’t seen since she graduated in May! That was a huge present and gift from God-life is such a great adventure!
There’s the old adage, “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.” I beg to differ slightly on this-because we don’t have to “try and make the best of things;” what we need to do is trust God and see how He’s working! He always does incredible work in all difficulties that come along, and we should take joy in this!


When life hands you lemons, God makes lemonade-and He wants you to enjoy it!

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