THE STORY

I have only run out of gas once in my life.

Once was all it took for me to learn my lesson.

One morning as I drove my elementary-aged children to school, my car decided that ‘E’ really meant ’empty’ and stopped working. It was out of gas and had no will to go on. This had never happened to me before, but I quickly figured out I had put off going to the pump for far too long. I call my wife. She picked me up (5 minutes). We got the kids to school (5 minutes). I filled a gas can (5 minutes). I arrived back at my car (5 minutes).

When I got back to my car, a tow truck was already there after only 20-30 minutes of sitting still. The road to my children’s school was also a road that paralleled an important US Air Force base. That morning at that particular time, Hamid Karzai, the then-president of Afghanistan was on his way in a motorcade to the base. My car had been identified as a ‘suspicious potential danger.’

Had I been later by 2 minutes, my car would have been towed and disappeared like donuts at church.

I was not prepared. I did not prepare.

Preparation is always a good virtue I believe. Let’s jump to the spiritual right away and say that spiritual preparation is always a good thing. You always need ‘gas in your tank’ spiritually. You need to prepare your heart for the valleys of life by abiding in Christ. Deepen your walk with the Lord so when trials and difficulties come your way, you have strength in your faith for perseverance.

An element of perseverance is preparation.

TMB