Years ago back in the early 1980's I lived in San Diego , California, and worked at a restaraunt called...
It was normal restaraunt work, but the BEST thing about it and the COOLEST thing was that my manager was this guy named Bruce Mathers. More about that guy another time, suffice it to say HE WAS ABSOLUTELY GREAT!
Anyway I worked the graveyard shift there as a waiter every night from Ten p.m. to Six a.m. Just a five day work week, nothing much to it aside from the usual kind of customers you find out in the early hours of the morning.
But there was a period of about two weeks where it seemed ALL the employees were coming down with the flu and calling in sick. Every morning I would get off at six am and sit down in the employees area to eat breakfast before I went home. And I could always look over through the plate glass of the Managers office and see good old Bruce on the phone, getting kind of stressed, and then I could see him looking straight at me and just KNEW exactly what was about to happen.....
"Uh Joe, Three people just called in sick this morning and there aren't enough to run the breakfast rush or lunch rush this morning,,,, could you pull a double???"
If it had been ANYBODY but Bruce I would have said :"Sorry but I just can't" But Bruce was so fantastic I would always sigh and say "Let me finish my breakfast and I'll go back out there!"
And so it went for two weeks! Every single day I was working 16 to 20 hours! And on my days off they would call me in and again I would work double shifts or longer!
It got to the point that one morning at 6 a,m. after finishing my shift I thought "I DON'T CARE WHAT HAPPENS THIS TIME, I'm BREAKING!!! TODAY I AM OUTTA HERE!!!!! These next two days are my days off and I just CAN'T work anymore!!!!!!"
But I could already see Bruce on the phone looking at me with those EYES! Sooooo I got up like I was going to just get a cup of coffee, grabbed my coat, punched out and GOT OUTTA THERE SO FAST HE NEVER KNEW WHAT HAPPENED!
HA!
As I was driving home the sun was starting to come up, I was working up in the Denny's in National City, but lived on the very SOUTH side of San Diego in an area just a few miles from the Mexican Border in a spot called Del Sol.
As I was driving home I thought "When I get home I am UNPLUGGING the phone, I am going to lay down and sleep til I dont want to sleep anymore, THEN I am going to get up and go over to ....
And so I got home, went in and lay down and was out like a light!
I woke up around noon, feeling so refreshed just knowing I DON'T HAVE TO WORK TODAY!!!! And I Am GOING TO McDONALDS! Ahhhhhhh! The Good Life!
I took a shower, shaved, got dressed and went out to my car to drive over to McDonalds and.....
NOTHING.
I had put the key in the ignition, turned it and NOTHING!
Not even the click click click click sound a dead battery usually makes!
" WHAT ON EARTH?" I thought "Did I leave the lights on this morning when I pulled in?" No I don't think so.... Hmmmmm. I tried it again NOTHING! I popped the hood and could see all over the posts of the cars battery that white powdery corrosion "Oh! I see! That's why nothing, All I have to do is take the battery clamps off, clean off the corrosion and put the clamps on and should be good as new!"
Trouble was I didn't have the tools to do that!
SOOOOOOOOO
I began to wiggle the clamps little by little by little til they loosened, Popped one off then the other. Cleaned off the corrosion, Hammered the clamps back on with my shoe.
Got in the car and put the key in the ignition and......................................................
NOTHING.
"I guess it MUST be dead after all" I thought so I Popped off the clamps again and thought "Thank Goodness there is a service station here a block away!"
In those days the area was just starting to be developed and aside from the apartment complex I lived in there was just a Gas Station and a small Mexican Restaraunt that had the worst Mexican food you can imagine!
So I trudged up to the gas station carting the battery, asked if they could recharge it, they said sure and so sat there for about another hour while they had it on the charger. But after another hour they came and said "Son I hate to tell you, but that battery is DEAD! I mean DONE FOR DEAD! It wont hold a charge!"
I thought they were just trying to trick me and said "NO WAY! It worked fine just this morning, I just left the lights on in the car!" They said "Well the battery is damaged!" I said again "NO WAY!" Then they said "How did you remove it from the car?" Welllllllllllllllll Evidently in wiggling the clamps to take them off the battery posts,. I had CRACKED the seal around the posts and destroyed my own battery!
OH NO
So I asked if they could sell me a battery. "Sure!" We'll have one out here for you first thing in the morning!"
WHAT WHAT WHAT???!!!!!!!!
"We'll have one out here for you first thing in the morning!"
NO!!!!! I thought I WANT TO GO TO McDONALDS! READ MY BOOK! FREE REFILLS ON THE DIET COKE! NOOOOOOOO !!!!!!!! It's Not Fair!!!!!
"Isn't there anyway you can get one out here now? I want to go to McDonalds for lunch!"
" Sorry tomorrow is the earliest."
Carted the battery home, saw that I had left the hood up on the car went over slammed the hood and then for good measure KICKED THE CAR!
And just as I kicked the car I told the Lord "This isn't FAIR! Lord! This is my one day off! I am exhausted! I was looking forward to going to McDonalds and now I can't even do THAT! Lord YOU SAID IF I WOULD BE FAITHFUL WITH MY TITHES AND OFFERINGS YOU WOULD REBUKE THE DEVOURER FOR MY SAKE!!!!!"
And EXACTLY the second I said YOU SAID YOU WOULD REBUKE THE DEVOURER FOR MY SAKE!!!! the Lord spoke so softly ... I heard it so clearly in my heart.....
"I DID"
Instantly I felt so ashamed. I thought, " Maybe I would have been in a car accident or something if I had gone driving and Maybe the Lord saved me from that!"
Soooo with little choice I walked back to the Mexican Restaraunt for some of the worst food imagineable.
As I sat waiting for my order I looked out the window and what should zoom by but...
sherrifs cars, paramedics ambulances, and then THE SWAT TEAM!ZOOOOOM!!!!!!
What is going ON? I thought. I asked the man there who owned the restaraunt if He Knew what was happening. He said, Maybe a fire up by the border or something.
" That must be SOME fire!" I thought!
Just then the mans son came running in and told us what was happening. Up at the
A man had come in armed with a virtual arsenal of automatic weapons and assault rifles. He had promptly begun to shoot anything that breathed in the McDonalds!
Within just MOMENTS 22 PEOPLE WERE DEAD! From 77 years of age all the way to 8 months! And anything inside that groaned still alive he would come back around and calmly finish them off!
We listened in absolute unbelief as the reports started coming in over the news! Helicopters started coming in it was like a war zone! And then it hit me........
I WOULD HAVE BEEN THERE!
not I *MIGHT* have been there but .....
I ****WOULD**** Have been there!
It had been my plan before I lay down that morning! It was my plan when I woke up that afternoon! I WAS SO ANGRY that my car battery was completely dead and they didn't have one in stock as
***I WANTED TO GO TO THE SAN YSIDRO MCDONALDS!!!***
You know that is one of the great miracles that I have experienced personally in my life. I mean can you imagine a DEAD BATTERY BEING A MIRACLE????
I CAN!
I know what Paul meant when he said he had LEARNED in all conditions to be CONTENT!
I am in such good hands with Jesus! I am learning more and more that it is true
ALL THINGS work together for GOOD to them that Love the Lord
EVEN DEAD BATTERIES!
What an awesome testimony!
ReplyDelete