Driving etc.

I saw a flying mattress today. It's not every day you get to see that sort of thing. For those who have a firm grasp of Mother Goose – and a loose grasp of reality – this flight of the mattress might seem to be a magical experience. This one most definitely wasn't. The flight began out of the bed of a very small pickup truck (a truck way to small to be hauling two very large mattresses) and ended a very few feet away. It wasn't pretty. I could hear from inside the delivery van I was driving. The only thing magical about the flight was the look on the man's face when he realized his new mattress had decided to take up flying. That was the most interesting thing that happened while I was driving.

I've decided I don't want to drive for a living.

Maybe if I saw more things like flying mattresses I would change my mind. I wouldn't mind driving for hours if it was exciting, it's just the boring part I mind. After the third or fourth trip to the same place, all the cars and roads start to look the same. If there was more happening on the road it wouldn't be that bad. Maybe that's the answer. Maybe I should make things happen on the road. . . Hmmmm . . . On second thought maybe I'd better just scratch driving of my list. After all “exciting” in driving lingo usually means “almost a crash.” How many good/safe drivers do you know who drive around looking for unusual things to happen on the road?

I already knew I don't want to drive for a living. Unless I'm going somewhere new where there's new scenery and the possibility of getting lost, or unless I'm going with interesting people, driving for me is almost always synonymous with boring. However, on occasion, driving can be a nice change of pace and I'm not about to complain about having some work even if it is very part-timeish. When a place I used to work asked if I wanted to do some driving for them, it wasn't a hard decision. It's kind of nice to go back and see the same guys you used to work with years ago even if they still do pick on me. I thought maybe since I was older they would respect me more and not mention the time I went the wrong way on the turnpike. Wrong! I guess having a dad and uncle who work there doesn't help. Somehow I get the feeling that whenever I do something worth mentioning, whether it be stupid or just “interesting,” they hear about it. Oh well, it's fun and it's definitely an answer to prayer to have something besides school to do. Sometimes it's nice when God answers a prayer in a way you don't expect. Not always, but sometimes.

I hate it when I get surprised that God answered a prayer. Many times His answers come in such a way that it is easy for me to overlook it -- only when I look back do I realize that He did indeed answer it -- but other times it is very obvious and I'm left wondering why I didn't ask sooner. The other week He answered one very obviously.

I asked Him specifically for a chance to talk to a classmate at school. I had no idea who or how but I figured with over three thousand students there had to be someone He wanted to to talk to and definitely wasn't doing it on my own, so I asked Him to make it obvious to me. He did and I felt really stupid when it was done. The next day, at the very end of the day, He turned a very random comment about a history test into twenty minute conversation about God. He accomplished in two minutes what I had been trying to do the whole semester! I have no idea how much it meant to the other guy, not that he wasn't interested, it's just that I don't think I did a whole lot to shake his belief in being an agnostic, but it meant a lot to me. It was one of those gentle slaps in the face that God gives me every now and then when pray for something I don't expect Him to answer. I As I was driving away I could almost hear him saying in response to my surprise “Well you asked me, didn't you?” (Don't ask me why I'm only writing about it now; it happened almost three weeks ago. I guess it may have something to do with a comment that was made in Sunday school yesterday about letting other people know when God does something special. If He makes it obvious it's probably because He wants to get the glory for it. BTW, pray for John Lagerman. He's the guy I talked too and he's been missing from class ever since. Maybe he's just taking an extended spring break but I'd like to see him again and pick up where we left off.)

I usually assume that any good request doesn't need to be a specific request, that He know's it's always on my unspoken prayer list. However, as I was driving away the verse from James came to mind, the verse where God says, “You have not because you ask not.” I always assumed that if I wanted something I knew God approved of (like an opportunity to witness) the only way God would not give it was if I ask amiss or for the wrong reasons. However, later on in the verse James mentions that in a separate category saying that “You ask and receive not because you ask amiss.” It's not the same thing. Apparently asking amiss and simply not asking are two equally good ways to get the same result. I may ask amiss a good deal, but I think just as many times it's a matter of me not bothering to ask.

How did I get from mattresses to prayer? I think it's time for me to end this post and get back the school I was neglecting while I was out driving the boring roads. Unfortunately, unless Greg or Josh decide to start a fight and begin throwing things like mattresses, school is likely to be just as boring as the roads were. Oh well, I guess boring things need to be done, too.