Ordinary Days

It's another ordinary day
but with an out-of-the ordinary problem: 
my dead-end road is closed off
so I can't go to the Post Office.

I've been on the phone with eBay;
their rules are clear-cut and hard-edged: 
I must ship within 24 hours, no excuses.

I've been on the phone with the country roadworks department; it's not their job but they do know that
a rusted culvert is being changed out.

I've been on the phone with the paving contractor
but the call is going right through to voice mail. 
No way to know when the street will open.

Frustrating for sure. 
But frustration is not my address. 
Philippians 4: 6 is.

Be anxious for nothing,
but in everything by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving
let your requests be made known unto God.

That is where I stand, where I live, what I do.
God knows what we need.  Things will work out.

Life is good.  And I am grateful.



.....editing to add that it all worked out: 

I waited until the last minute to attempt my Post Office run because, really, I had to try or I would face eBay consequences.  I drove to the end of my street.  It's a little lane-and-half-wide dead-end road that opens with a switchback curve that turns out of a deeper curve in the main road.  Sure enough, the main road was blocked to the right where the entire road surface was opened for work on the culvert.  And it was blocked a quarter mile away round the curve on the left.

I sat in my car and remembered something I'd read in an article the other day--it was advice parents had given a kid back in the '50s about dealing with bullies:
Sometimes life is hard.
Be a good person.
Figure it out.
Somehow that has stuck with me.  It's good advice.  So I said my prayers and thought about how I'd have to back the car down my road to go home.  While I sat there praying and figuring, I watched people driving from the opposite direction up to the pylons that blocked the road to the left and then backing away slowly and uncertainly around the curve; they seemed to have a problem with that.  The direction I needed to turn was left.  That surely wasn't as much of an issue as if I had needed to go right.  There was a huge hole on the right; on the left,  just temporary pylons. 

And there was something else important, too, that I realized:  I have no problems driving the car in reverse.  You see, when I was practice driving with my learner's permit, my mother allowed me to drive anywhere in our neighborhood that I wanted.  It was all curvy streets.  But she would ONLY allow me to drive those streets in reverse!  Mother said that she was mortified by women drivers who couldn't control a car in reverse and she was going to make sure that I would never shame her by being one of them.  When I was 15 that seemed kinda tragic but now I can see the sense.  To this day, I can still back the car in a nice neat circle when necessary.

I decided to drive toward the pylons.  If I had to back up around the curve, no big deal.  If I could drive round the pylons, win.  But I wouldn't know unless I tried.  There was just barely enough space.  Win!  I made it to the PO with minutes to spare; I mailed my eBay shipment; I got home safely.

God is so good.
The advice that I needed was already there. 
And my mother's quirky notion prepared me in an unexpected manner to find the courage to try things a different way.

What was I praying while I was in the car?  I was thanking God for this day, for the people who were working, and for the solution to my problem. 

Here's the deal:  Don't ask; just say thank you. 
God already has prepared the solution that you need.