Reset

I made the mistake this week of trying to be a mechanic. That never seems to work well for me.

Matthew's girlfriend had taken his car to Ankeny last Sunday for a wedding. Matthew traveled up later with our vehicle. Well Matthew's car would not start after the wedding. He called me and it sounded like a dead battery. He tried to jump the car but it failed to start. I told him to come home and we would go back Monday morning and get a new battery or see what was wrong.

You ever have one of those deals where you are kind of sure this is not a normal fix. Yea, that is what I was thinking as I went to sleep Sunday night. Matthew needed to be back in Michigan on Monday evening and I really was not happy about sending him down the road even if we put in a new battery. What if the alternator had failed and it drained the new battery as they were traveling 8 hours to Michigan.

We headed out to Ankeny early Monday morning. Hooked up the battery cables once again and still just a click and a slight buzz when the key was turned. Then we disconnected the battery cable from Matthew's battery and put the jumper cables directly on the live cable. Maybe if Matthew's battery had a dead cell it was drawing all the current. Didn't help. We took out the battery and went to a Arnold's Motor store. They tested the battery and it tested good. The man who tested it said look the battery is 6 years old and it has leaked fluid out the top edges. I can assure you it is the battery. I am thinking OK I will buy a new battery but I think I am throwing money down the drain.

 Yep that is Matthew steering as I push the car away from a block wall so a tow truck can get at it. The new battery did absolutely nothing to change our status. Just a click a buzz and all the lights go out.  I had asked who was a good mechanic at the Arnold's Motors store because I had a bad feeling about this.

They told us to go to Midwest Muffler. I asked Midwest muffler? I am sure it is not the muffler that needs to be fixed. "Oh they do all kind of repairs". So we drove to Midwest Mufflers. The man there asked "has it been underwater like all the cars on our parking lot?" Ankeny had a heavy rain and many cars were flooded. We told him it had not been in water. It sounds like your starter is shot. We can work it about Friday. Friday? Matthew needs to get back to Michigan. We could send them off in our vehicle and then maybe figure out a way to bring them his car and get ours later. Yes! a 16 hour trip. That is my idea of not a good time. The man at Midwest Mufflers said every good mechanic in town is going to be swamped (don't you love that, cars under water and they are swamped) with work. Those that aren't, well there is a reason. 

I asked if he would have anyone he would recommend. "There is a Midas shop just a couple of blocks from where your car is sitting. They just opened and they shouldn't be very busy." So off to the Midas Muffler shop we went again. I was beginning to think we should just saw the muffler off the car and all would be good. Midas could work on the car immediately. They called a tow truck and the tow truck could pick it up in an hour.

Exactly 1 hour later the tow truck showed up and hooked up the car. Yes I waited an hour by the car to make sure they took the right car. The way the day was going I could just see us getting to the Midas shop later in the day and finding they had fixed someone else's car.

While Midas had the car we went to Jethro's BBQ to eat. As we finished our meal and were walking out the door I got a call from Midas. Your car is ready to go. The security lock out was on. What? Oh Baby, we had driven to Ankeny, I had bought a new battery, paid to have the car towed, paid a mechanic to trouble-shoot the car, and set Matthew back 5 hours on the trip back to Michigan. All that needed to be done was leave the key turned on for 10 minutes to reset the security lockout and the car would start. Hey if anyone needs any mechanic work done send your car my way, I'll get it fixed the long expensive way, even if it just needs to be reset.

Sometimes our lives need to be reset too. We can try to fix everything and all we need is the reset button. I had a conversation with a woman this week. You can get in some mighty interesting conversations if you are willing to listen. She is looking for a church home here in Oskaloosa. She had been told that I was a pastor and wanted to know where my church was so she could come on Sunday. I had to explain to her that I was not really a pastor and did not have a church where I lead the services every Sunday. I did invite her to come to my home church First CRC. 

She told me some of her story. She was a stripper. Yes, you read that correctly she worked at a strip club in the past. She had been raised in a church and had turned to the world. She had come to see her need for salvation and that she was a sinner. Here's the great part. She told me she had been born again and now she was a virgin in Christ. Wow. she had been given a reset by God. I think we too often keep looking at our past and other's past when we should be acknowledging, we are a new creation. The past has been covered by the blood of the lamb. All our sins are paid for and we are born again. Don't look at the past and what you were or what anyone else was. See those who have salvation through the cleansing blood of Jesus, we have been given an opportunity to reset.