This is one of the stories that I take note of and pin on what I call “The God Board”, where I collect notes about all of the “That’s totally a God thing” moments I have in life. I have been meaning to get this story down for many years, but now I can see how it can be useful in situations where I can share to help others understand my faith in God and his actions by the experiences that I have allowed to shape my faith.
3 or 4 months before God fixed my Jeep, so around May 2007, my beloved Jeep Comanche, a sought after Jeep truck because of its utility, ease of modification, and its off-road capabilities, started to have some sort of issues where the engine would shut off while I was driving down the highway. I love that vehicle, it was quite a find, and rare at the time, since they were no longer produced. It had a strong strait-6 engine, easy to work on, and any issues it had were typically known, and easy to address, with a few exceptions, such as what I was experiencing. Without going into much more detail, the main points are that this was the first vehicle I purchased, and I had a lot of pride in having such a sought after Jeep that was so much fun to drive off-road, which was a strong interest of mine at the time. I did everything I could figure out how to fix the vehicle, took it to many mechanics who could not figure it out, replaced the exhaust headers, and anything else that I could clearly see needed fixed, but nothing worked.
At that time I was heavily seeking God, searching, reading, studying, gathering with bible study groups, and going to church services. It was on my list of important things to figure out in life which I made after I thought I got everything I wanted, but it left me feeling empty. When I do something, I go hard, all-in, extreme, for better or worse, but this one was for the better. I finally took the issue to God in prayer, and I prayed that He fix my jeep, the situation, no matter how, I don’t care, I give up all attachments to the Jeep, and I leave it all in His court to solve, I just needed something reliable to get me to and from the places I need to go.
If I recall correctly, it was the same day, or the day after, but after I prayed there was an overwhelming understanding that He will fix it, no doubt, not even the slightest, a feeling of such freeing confidence that I could not really put it into words, something I have never felt before, something that could only have come from God. I was excited! Later that day I went for a walk with a friend and shared the news, the prayer, and my excitement, but I was asking myself, “How will God solve this? Maybe a mechanic will be woken up at night with an idea and give me a call with the solution. Maybe He will have someone run into it and total it… but I don’t drive it, and God wouldn’t risk me getting hurt! So what’s He going to do? Have someone run into it while it is parked? Yeah right! That doesn’t happen! What are the odds of that happening?”. Despite my wondering, I knew that God would solve the issue, even if I didn’t know how! After getting back home from walking with a friend, I go inside and head to my room to do misc stuff on the computer, totally moving on and focusing on other things. After a while that evening (around 5:45pm, September 23, 2007), I heard a strange noise, loud enough that it was unusual, but not like an explosion, but a deeper frequency that I couldn’t quite identify. Curious, I walked upstairs from my room to the front door, opened it and looked out. Everything was quiet, nothing initially seemed out of the ordinary. It was dark, so I could not easily see much further than the front yard. Still looking around, I finally noticed… Where was my Jeep, it was parked out front, but it was missing. I stepped outside, walked to the sidewalk, and looked up and down the street only to finally see my Jeep down the road with a smashed bumper.
I don’t know how long it took me to fully grasp what had happened, the prayer, God “fixing” my Jeep somehow, how I laughed at the idea of it being totaled by being ran into while parked, but I don’t think it was long before I started putting it together. I did the needful with insurance. I had full coverage, and after the looked at it, they considered it totaled, and quoted me the payout. It turns out that they would give me more than the total that I paid for the Jeep initially. God fixed my Jeep!