Life has been a little rough for me these past couple of weeks and I was feeling pretty down for a while. I suppose I’m still a little upset yet, but then I began to realize that everything will work out according to God’s will and timing, which is always perfect.

Last week Friday morning it snowed a little here in Wisconsin, and it was quite cold outside for November, so I started my Jeep Grand Cherokee to let it warm up before I left for work. As it was running I shoveled the snow, which took around 20 minutes or so. After that I got back into the Jeep and tried to back out of the driveway. I noticed that the gear shifter kept shifting itself back out of Reverse and into Park or sometimes Neutral. After that I noticed that the OBD malfunction (“engine light”) was on. I decided to call work and ask for the day off because I needed to arrange for my vehicle to be towed. Needless to say I was very upset and frustrated because something was possibly wrong with the transmission in my Jeep. I had hoped the problem was less serious though, such as a sensor or something else electronic dealing with the gear shifter. Unfortunately, it turns out that somehow the transmission is damaged (there is the presence of metal shavings in the transmission fluid and it appears burnt), so I will have to pay a ridiculous amount of money to fix it. My wife and I really didn’t want to pay so much to repair it, because the vehicle is almost eight years old, but we had little choice since we still owe quite a lot on our loan for it. We were very upset to have such a serious mechanical failure on the Jeep when it only has about 43,000 miles on it, and I’m not hard on the vehicle. I don’t drive like a maniac and I don’t do any heavy towing or plow with it. I am thankful, however, that the Lord has provided a means to pay for it for now and we can pay the money back a little every month.

Also, I recently found out that my dad is sick as well as an aunt. My aunt is in the hospital with COVID, and both she and my dad are about 80 years old. I have been praying for both to get well soon and yesterday I found out Dad is feeling better and my aunt is not seriously ill right now. She is very tired but expected to be able to go home soon.

I am also thankful for the new family/play area that we made in our basement. Since we live in a somewhat small house, my wife wanted an additional family/play area so that the kids have somewhere else to play together besides our living room. I lost the workbench I had, because it has been repurposed into an entertainment center/table, but we repurposed a table that we had into a different workbench. I didn’t want the change to happen at first, because I don’t like change very much, but I am very happy with how the project has turned out, and thankful to have more usable space in our house.

I think the lesson I need to learn through times like this is that I shouldn’t worry and need to rely on Jesus to handle the difficult situations in life that are outside of my control. I hope anyone who might read this will have a happy Thanksgiving and also will get to know Jesus before it is too late. I recommend starting by reading the book of John in the New Testament of the Bible.