God brought me to my knees

Well, apparently last Monday, God decided it was time to teach this arrogant child (me) a lesson.
I had my first accident on Monday morning in a Little Rock pharmacy parking lot, and the lady whose care I backed into was really really really furious and flipped out and called the police and gave me looks of death all the while. I understand that she was mad, but I obviously hadn't done it on purpose, and I mean, I went inside and paged her in the pharmacy so that we could work it out. So yeah. The policeman came and he was really nice, and when she started flipping out at me again, he was like, "It's ok, it was just an accident, there's no need to cause a scene." So yeah. I'd put a dent in the side of her car, and it wasn't any real damage, it just hurt her nice pretty car. And I thought my car was fine. Little did I know.

“Mrs. Gilbreth, you backed your car into a parked truck. It doesn’t take a doctor to tell you that you need a little rest.” (Belles on Their Toes)

Two hours later after speeding along the highway to Memphis I got off the interstate because Jenny was lost. As we were going through lights, and I was even more convinced that we were lost, a lady rolled down her window and yelled, “your bumper is coming off!”

So, I pulled off and, sure enough, my bumper was at a right angle to my car, and had obviously been dragging along the road for a significant amount of time. I had pulled of into a gas station parking lot, and parked right next to a police car. Anyways, so Jenny and I lifted up the sides, to see if maybe we could stick it back on somehow. . . .and the whole thing fell off. So I was standing in a parking lot, in a rather not-so-nice part of Memphis, looking at my bumper on the ground. I’d never actually wondered what was under my bumper. . .but now I know. Anyways, so this guy comes up. . .and he was kind of creepy, but anyways, he’s like, “Ma’am are you having some trouble?” I’m like, well, yeah, obviously. So he announces that he could fix it for me. I was like, well, how much would you charge? So then he starts talking about how he could get a new bumper by the next day. And I was like, no, I’m going to GA TODAY. So he wanted me to bring my car down to his HOUSE which was a few blocks down, apparently. I looked at Jenny and Theresa, and we didn’t really know what to do, but I was like, wellll, can’t you fix it right here? I wasn’t going anywhere. The police car sitting next to me made me feel much more secure, too. Anyways, so yeah. He started working on it, and I opened up my trunk so he could get to it and everything. And then he asked for wire or string, and I didn’t have either one. I didn’t even have any yarn with me! But this other guy comes up and says he has a coat hanger in his trunk, and so the guy helping us takes off with him and comes back with a wire coat hanger and a pair of wire cutters. So now my bumper is literally attached to my car with 2 screws and a coat hanger. I’m as kabili/hick as you get. I fit right in in Atlanta, though! I gave the guy 20 bucks, and we took off from there as fast as possible. Oh, and the guy who helped us hopped into a car with a California license plate (remember, we’re in Memphis, TN!) and drove off. And we were like, sooooo, he lived right down the road? Uh-huh. But yeah. We got back on the interstate, and eventually got to where we needed to be.

So I drove for another 5 hours and got back to Chattanooga. The whole trip from Little Rock to Chattanooga only actually took 7 hours. . .a new record for Little Jenny. I was driving a wee bit fast.

When I finally got back to my apartment, I had 15 minutes before James was picking me up to go watch X3. So, I started up my computer to check e-mail, since I didn’t have wireless or even cell phone reception for the past few days in Arkansas.
The screen had shiny lines all down it. And I could see nothing that I was supposed to. I tried rebooting a couple times. . .and I got the same thing. Anyways, then James got there, and so I just shut it down and set it to charging, hoping that it would magically fix itself while I was gone. So yeah. I made James get rid of a couple of large bugs for me. Then we left. The ENTIRE time we were out, he didn’t stop talking. . .about comic books, and the X-Men cartoon series, and he just went on and on and on. I was soooo bored.

But really, I was worrying about my car, and my computer, and I felt like my life was in shambles. I’d never hurt my car before, or anything. I was supposed to be a responsible grown up person. I felt like the whole day had been a failure. I felt like I was a failure. And I was. I’d gotten to the point in my life where I felt like I was independent and in control, and I was forgetting about God, and his importance and giving him the glory and honor. I’ve been glorifying myself instead of him. And that’s just stupid. I can’t do anything. I’m a pathetic excuse of a human being. It is only through his grace that I’ve been sanctified, redeemed, and made whole. He has given me everything that I have, and if he chooses to take it away, I can’t complain. He knows how to take care of me, and mold me towards himself. And he protects and takes care of me, even when I do stupid things like ram into other cars, and drop bumpers in parking lots.

Anyways, so by the time I got home at like 1 am, I was an emotional wreck. So I called Libby and left her a voice mail, and then I called Aaron, who listened to me and calmly and rationally told me to go get some sleep. Which I was in desperate need of. So instead, I went and took a shower, and when I got out, Libby called me! So I talked to her for an hour and went to bed at 3.

The next day I managed to make my computer work again (but it still cuts in and out sometimes—I think it may be overheating or something, I don’t know). I also told my dad about the broken bumper. And life moves on.