The world is not going to meet you on your terms so you might as well cut the drama, and find out what you need to do to meet the world on its own terms. I discovered a long time ago that this thing, called life, is bigger than anything I can muster up on my own.  So I decided that rather than mess up a good thing, and my life is a good thing, that I might as well send it back to the maker for maintenance.  It’s like Joyce Meyer says, “If you got a Ford car, why would you send it to Volkswagon when something goes wrong with it?  You’ll send it to Ford.  Why? Because since they made it, they would know the complexities of the car, and what needs to be done to fix it.” That is why when our car, or any manufactured thing, is broken beyond our understanding, the first thing we do is return it to the maker.  The same should be true with all the elements of human existence.

No disrespect to the work-a-day mechanics and technicians of our day, but even they have their limitations in their ability to fix that which is wrong. Case in point, my car coded on me, and I took my car in to the mechanic shop at the dealership where we bought it, because that’s what they said I should do.  A couple of days later I got a call from Mazda telling me that the car was ready and I needed to schedule an appointment for it to be picked up.  I was totally perplexed, because the Mazda division that was calling me was in Tarrytown, I live in the Bronx, and the dealership was in Yonkers.  So before I consented to making an appointment, I nicely said to the girl, “Thanks for calling me, but I’m a little lost about why I’m getting this call.”  She said, “Do you own a gray Mazda 626, license number xxxxxx?” I said, “Yes, but I didn’t bring the car in to you.  I took it back to the dealership, which is why I was surprise when I got your call.”  She said, “Well, maybe the dealership mechanic couldn’t fix it, because it had a special code that only Mazda could unlock so they brought it to us to fix it.  I called you, because your name and number was on the bill in the car. I guess that was their contact information for you, but don’t worry about it.  I’ll call the dealership and have them arrange to pick it up.”  Two days later, the dealership called to tell me that my car was ready to be picked up, but to this day, they have yet to tell me that they took my car and sent it back to the maker.   In another instance, my husband took his van in to be fixed and ask me to drive back up to him so that he wouldn’t have to take a cab back home.  Not ten minutes later, I saw the van pull out of the parking lot and make a rapid left turn up Broadway.  Questioningly, I called him on his cell, and asked him what the problem was.  He said, “I don’t know.  I have to leave it with them for evaluation.”  I said, “So where are you going?”  He said, “I’m not going anywhere, I’m standing here on the line waiting for them to check the van in.  I got about two people ahead of me.”  I said, “Honey, if you’re on line, then who’s driving the van?”  He challenged the validity of my statement by asking me how could I be sure that it was his van.  I said, “Sweetheart, I know your van, and I’m telling you that it’s your van – right down to the sticker on the bumper, but it passed by me so quickly that I couldn’t see who was driving it.  That’s why I’m calling you.”  Then he said that he “left the van is parked on the street in the back,” and went inside.  I said, “Did you give them the key?”  He said, “I had to give them the key.  How else would they be able to diagnose it?”  I said, “Then you better find out what’s going on, because your van just went up Broadway like a bat out of hell.”

Last Case Scenario: Have you ever tried to baby sit someone else’s child clingy or unruly child? What’s the first thing you did when that child started to act up or became more than you could manage without resorting to wringing its neck or throwing it out of a window? You took the child back to the parent.  Well, that’s all that God is expecting of us.  That when the circumstances of life are more than we can manage, rather than take a high dive off a short pier or a long walk off of a short plank, we turn the situation over to him, because he knows what needs to be done to fix it.  He doesn’t want us passing it off to Joe Shmoe, aunty Mary, uncle Felix, the soothsayer, the do-gooder, or the obeah man.  He also doesn’t want us to blame baby Sally, cousin Suzie, or the fogies, tell Peter, Paul, James and John, hang Judas, borrow from the Andersons to keep up with the Jones, or rob Peter to pay Paul.  He want’s us to bring it to him – in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, believing that whatsoever he promises he is able to deliver, wheresoever he leads, he is able to protect, whatever he permits, he is able to out perform, and that “the effective fervent prayer of righteous man availeth much.”