Last week I mentioned I was having computer problems. That just added to the list of things that went haywire. Looking back, after all has been handled and checked off, I marvel at God’s timing. Continually in prayer about the issues this past week, a phrase kept coming to my mind: “This too shall pass.”
Altogether I was without a computer for almost 10 days. It was rough. Not only did I not have Internet access, but also when my computer guy took my tower home with him to do the necessary repair work, I had nothing. At least last week I was able to type a story from home but needed to drive over to my sister’s house to retype and then email from her computer. I needed a re-install of my operating system. My modem, as it turned out, was not the issue at all.
Thankfully I had purchased an external hard drive a number of years ago and had backed up my stories and farm records on it. I had QuickBooks software and all the start-up disks from when I had purchased the computer. So it could have been much worse. I did, however, lose all the contacts in my address book.
So the cyberspace-less days went on. Just after my computer crashed, I couldn’t find my checkbook. I looked for days. I fretted. I prayed. I back-tracked. I contacted my niece, where I was when I last had my hands on it. She literally turned her couch upside down looking for it. I thought I was losing my mind.
After some days I gave up looking and began reconstructing my check register, using precious time I did not have. When I could not gather any other material from my own records, I went to my bank and sat with a helpful gal who painstakingly went through checks, debit entries and deposits with me. I couldn’t check online at home because my computer was down! I consented to a stop-payment fee on the missing checks, just to be safe.
No computer, my checkbook floating and my mind was in turmoil. I hopped onto the tractor one day to pick corn. I am ever mindful of the fact that we grow our corn to feed our cows and I try very hard not to lose even a cob as I make my way around the field. We need this product.
Well, that day I was picking and the elevator on the picker wasn’t bringing the corn cob up the shaft to deposit into the gravity box, which I was pulling behind the picker. I stopped. Sighing deeply, I realized I must call husband for help. I had no idea why the picker stopped doing its thing.
Keeping in mind my desire not to lose any corn, I didn’t want to run any over, so I decided to back everything up, to get it off the row, before turning out to drive down to the other gravity box. I’d have to wait for my husband to come out to the field as he was skidding logs in our woods nearby while waiting for me to fill the gravity boxes.
I should have run the corn over. As I backed up, the elevator swung at a weird angle, awkwardly scrunching itself up against the gravity box. Looking back my heart sank. The elevator did not look right. It was going left when it should have been straight back. Oh Lord, have mercy. I thought of the expense to fix it, the down-time when it was finally sunny and dry out, I thought of all the mistakes I had made. I was really raking myself over the coals.
I’m not so good at corn. One year I went around the entire field only to discover I had forgotten to close the trap door to the gravity box. The cobs escaped faster than the corn picker had hoisted them into the box. We ended up going around the field, physically throwing the cob back into the box by hand.
So that day the corn picker had to be hauled into the implement repair shop. It sat there for two whole sunny days before finally it was ready to be hauled slowly home again. As soon as we got it home it started raining. We couldn’t pick for days. Insult to injury.
Adding to my computer troubles, my missing checkbook and me messing up the corn picker, was a dear one going through tests, waiting for blood work results. The entire 10 days was a challenge to my faith as I struggled with emotions, forcing me to rely on God’s mercy and grace to see me through.
The very day my computer came back, I found my checkbook. It had fallen behind my computer desk. I had not discovered it there because I did not have a computer! My sister texted me, “All along it was ticklin’ ur toes!”
That very same day we received news that all test results were normal. Because my sister looks at things with a heavenly, eternal perspective she told me, “See? Everything we are going through will be over soon! Another box checked off! Good news!”
Thank You, Lord, for answered prayer, helpful people, prayer warriors, for the patience to endure! And for getting our corn finally off the field. Amen.
(“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2Corinthians 4:17-18)
Categories
