Good or Bad?
By Mike Rule

The past few weeks have been a bit exhausting.  It all began about a week before I headed to Wisconsin.  I was invited to do a conference on the Christian Life on a Friday and Saturday night and speak in a church the following Sunday.  After  spending about a week in the Milwaukee area I was to head further north and make several stops in Wisconsin and Northern Michigan.  I was planning to take my parent’s mini motor-home to sleep and cook in to minimize expenses and allow greater freedom and flexibility in travel.  Our own vehicle situation was not the best as there were several major repairs that needed to be done, but with the motor-home to use, there was no urgency to get the repairs done.   Becky would have decent transportation while I was gone and the other things could wait until I got home. 

My dad was concerned about a possible furnace problem with the motor-home so he bought a carbon monoxide detector to test it.  There was no problem with it and I got the vehicle a few days early to have time to pack.  There were several other things in life that seemed to be going wrong all through this time while I was also extremely busy trying to get my conference materials ready and prepare a message for Sunday.  Then I discovered there was a  problem with the motor-home’s brakes.  Having been a mechanic for almost 15 years, I did not think it was any big deal so I bought the parts to fix it.  I apparently mis-diagnosed it because the problem was still there after the repair.  I began to get a little frustrated because I was to leave in two days and still did not have it  ready.  I finally made up my mind to take it even with the brakes not being 100%. 

Two nights  before I was to leave I realized I had not checked the battery charging system for the camper part of the rig.  As I was driving it down the road I flipped the switch to energize the camper’s battery and charge it from the engine.  That is when the fun began.  The headlights went out, the engine quit, and as I coasted to a stop I could hear the battery sizzling under the hood.  There was a direct short and I expected to either have the battery explode or there to be a fire at any moment.  I tried to turn off the camper electrical system, but the switch had welded itself together and would not release.  I jumped out to disconnect the battery but could not get the terminal free.  I was in a panic and was flying through the motor-home trying to find a tool to disconnect the battery but there were none.  Becky ran to a nearby house to borrow a tool while I worked feverishly to do something.  By the time she returned the battery was dead, I was exhausted, my kids were scared out of their minds, and she was gasping for breath from running in the bitter cold. 

It turns out the camper battery was installed backwards.  When I turned on the switch, the negative terminal of the engine was connected directly to the positive terminal of the camper.  The result was a direct short and everything stopped because there was no power.  I finally surrendered and decided to not take the rig but to borrow my parents car instead.  I did not understand why God let me go so far down that path when I could have had one of our own cars fixed to take.  I was committed to going in the way I felt Him leading me but at the last minute He closed that door. The trip itinerary was totally changed as a result. 

Would you say all that happened was bad?  I wouldn’t.  My dad called me a few days ago.  When he was done testing the motor-home for carbon monoxide he decided to put the detector in their  home.  Monday morning they woke up to the carbon monoxide alarm going off.  It is triggered at a level 30.  By the time he got to the detector the level had reached somewhere around 170.  It seems the furnace in their home had failed and was dumping all the furnace exhaust directly into the house.    Without that detector I am quite certain I would be going through a tremendous grieving process right now as I faced the loss of both my parents.

We do not understand all things and we know God does not cause all things.  Yet He causes all things to work together for the good of those who love Him…  We are often trying to take the negatives of life and counteract them with a positive.  As a result we lose our power and everything stops for us as we short out and burn up.  For there to be power, the positive and the negative have to reach their goal.  They cannot be connected prematurely.  Through all the negatives I knew God was doing something but I did not have a clue what it might be.  I had no idea that one of the things He was doing was preserving the lives of my parents.  I am reminded to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil by making judgments about what might be good or bad and to walk in faith, eating from the tree of Life, trusting that He causes all things to work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose!  He is faithful!