In 2012, when gas was over $3.60/gallon, my husband decided to buy a brobdingnagian, V8, gas guzzling truck. I thought it was a bad idea. It didn’t make sense on paper. I resisted. The truck is so big, no one else in the family (at that time we had 5 drivers in the house) was comfortable driving it but him. But he insisted, that “Big Butt Bertha” was the next vehicle for our family.
Friday, after we had packed grocery bags for an Outreach and played. “Turkey Tetris” in various freezer across southern Wake county, a very important question was asked, “How are we going to get the bags, the turkeys, tables, the clothes to the park?”
My response, “I have a truck.”
You won’t be able to fit all of that in your truck my friends protested.
My response, “It’s a very big truck!”
Saturday, I showed up at the church with “Bertha” only to find out, the mini-van we were going to use had been replaced with an SUV. The pressure was on for Bertha to show her worth. And she did. Big Butt faithfully carried 50 tukeys, 30 bags of groceries, 50 loaves of bread, an ice chest and a folding table with room left to spare.
As I carefully drove to the park, with Bertha loaded down, I thought about the many times over the last 8 years, I have used this truck that I objected to buying for ministry. My mind flashed back to times when Bertha showed up bearing gifts and making people happy. Neither James nor I knew how God would use a truck to bless neighborhoods.
And then I was reminded of the goodness of God. God knew I would need a big truck when I was clueless. He is Jehovah Jireh – the God who looks aheads and provides. I could not see how God was providing for MBoldenMinistries when MBoldenMinistries was not even a thought in my mind but it was in His.
And then I was humbled. What if I had insisted upon my way 8 years ago. What if I had not submitted to my husband’s desire. What if instead of praying, “God give us the knowledge of your will”, I prayed, “God change my husband’s mind.” What if I prayed for my will and not His will.
Sometimes the very thing we are fighting against is God’s Ram in the thicket. (And God has a sense of humor because our truck is a Dodge Ram.)
“Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of the place, The- LORD -Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the LORD it shall be provided.””
Genesis 22:13-14 NKJV
