Okay. Maybe I’m cheating by using this title. Many of you who know me personally are aware that the transmission went out on our main vehicle this week. But this morning when I came down from my bedroom, I was met in the kitchen by my beautiful, bright eyed, 12 year old daughter. She somehow sensed that I was a bit glum and brightly asked, “Did someone die?”
“No. Why?” I asked.
“Well, by your expression I thought maybe someone died and I hadn’t heard about it yet!”
You want to know the funniest part about this? Many years ago when I worked in hospitals and again later when I worked a great deal with hospice patients, I had a realistic perspective on things that were non-lethal. When things were not going well in my life or the life of the people around me, I would frequently ask: “Yeah, I hear that, but let’s remember that no one is going to die of this.” I learned how to live through serving the dying. Surely, losing an expensive transmission is an unpleasant experience. It is a financial burden and a real inconvenience; but no one will die of it. It simply reveals that even in this challenge, I would not have to look very far to find someone that is in a much more challenging position than merely having to deal with a service bill to repair a transmission. As a matter of fact, I can rejoice in the fact that I even have a car that can have a failed transmission. I also have a car that is valuable enough to justify repairing that transmission. The repairman called me on my cell phone, another huge convenience for me, to tell me about the problem. I was having a nice lunch with my wife, poor me and my difficult life, when the call came in. We were both talking to an old acquaintance that we had bumped into, who was catching us up on some struggles that he had been through with his teenage son. Transmissions are expensive, sons are invaluable. It’s also sometimes easier to correct a problem in a transmission than it is in a teenage boy. Transmissions, for example don’t have free wills or hard heads.
I also realized that my daughter’s words were anything but a “failed transmission.” The message that she transmitted to me was pure and unmistakable. Because of it, I feel more inclined to praise God for the failure of my transmission than I do to bemoan it. It was a means to revealing to me the many blessings that I possess in people, family and provisions to make my life wonderful and fulfilling. When I look at it correctly, I’m blessed; bad transmission and all.
How about you? Why not find a reason to count your many blessings today and praise God for them all. It will change your day and it will also help to improve your perspective on life.
You know, the more I think about it, maybe it wasn’t cheating to talk about the failed transmission after all. Perhaps it is just one more example of how God can and does use every moment of our lives, which we will allow him to use, as a way to reveal the truth about His hand in our lives.
Join me today in rejoicing over life and its many blessings. Don’t let this transmission of information fail. Blessings!

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