I am not normal. Let’s get that straight from the very beginning. Here is an example taken right out of my life. It happened today...the day I started documenting my non-normalcy. It started like any other day.
It is my wife’s birthday. I didn’t sleep very well, which had nothing to do with the birthday, as I have already bought her gifts and so I don’t have to fear sleeping on the couch tonight. I woke up, ate a quick breakfast and left to go to the church to make a few copies for the Birthday Girl’s Bible study she was going to do this morning. I got in our SUV and shut the door. The passenger side window was icy, but still I drove over to the church. Partway to the church, I noticed my door was not shut tight. But I didn’t let it stop me.
When I arrived at the church, I went to open the door…It was stuck. I pulled on the handle and pushed as hard as I could. It was stuck. “Maybe the seatbelt is caught in it.” No, the seatbelt wasn’t stuck. I immediately called my lovely bride and asked her if she has ever had a problem with the door. “No,” was her answer. I told her, “I guess I will have to climb out the passenger door.”
I hung up and climbed onto the plastic thing in the middle. It didn’t look pretty but I could reach the door. Pulling on the lever, the results were similar to my door. It didn’t move an inch. Not even a centimeter. “That door must be frozen shut.” So I reached back and tried the door on the passenger side in the backseat. “That’s frozen too.” I was down to one door and fortunately it was not on the icy side of the car. I reached back and, “oh, no.” It wouldn’t open.
Before I left the driveway, I had picked up a metal baseball bat that I needed for a comedy performance my youngest son and I am going to use for a talent show on Saturday. I noticed it sitting up front. “Maybe the Lord had me grab it because He knew I was going to need it to smash a window.”
Before I did that, I called my wife. She answered, “Well, are you free?” I cried, “The power doors are broken and I cannot get out of the car.” I was really beginning to panic. My wife was flustered and was racking her brain trying to figure out why this could all be happening to me. She thought, being the wise woman that she is and having been married to me for seventeen and a half years, that she should ask me a very important question. “Are the doors locked?” I hit the lock button and tried to open the door and low and behold, it opened right up. My wife had a really good laugh at my expense. So did I. One of those deep laughs that are uncontrollable. She said, without stopping her laughter, “I have heard of people who lock themselves out of their cars, but I have never heard of someone locking themselves in their car.” More laughter. Ha, ha, ha. That’s my point. I am not normal. Normal people would lock themselves out; not in.
I started thinking, which I should have started doing a few minutes earlier. Why is it that as human beings, our natural tendency is to take things to the worst-case scenario? You’re not wearing a coat; you are going to catch pneumonia. A kid is climbing a tree and our first thought is, “Don’t fall out of that tree.” Or “If you fall out of that tree, don’t come running to me.” There is even a series of books that are called “Worst-case Scenarios.” We need to learn to trust God more and learn to live life to the fullest. Let’s all agree to quite looking for the worst-case scenario and start seeking for the “Blessed-case Scenario.” Because we are more blessed then we realize. I know I am blessed. God didn’t have me bring that bat to help me escape my man-eating car. But He saved me from myself before I smashed one of the windows to smithereens. Now I can laugh at myself. Had I smashed a window, I wouldn’t be laughing, I’d be crying! But even though I am blessed, please don’t confuse me for someone who is normal.
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