Unruffled through the car-fuffle

Just before Christmas last year my cousin who was holidaying on the west coast of South Africa, about a couple of hours drive from where I was, invited Deb and I to stay with him to enjoy the beautiful seafront apartment they had rented. What a treat! So we asked Holy Spirit if we should go and the answer was, yes. When the invitation came I assumed that my cousin would come and pick us up. After all, he was on holiday, he had a rented car and I was sure he wouldn't mind spending four hours on the road on a return trip, the sun was shining, how bad could it be. To my surprise, he had no desire spending the better part of his day driving up and down the coastal roads in holiday traffic. (As a side, I heard a someone say to me recently, 'assume' makes an ass out of 'u' and 'me' - pretty appropriate here). But my cousin kept asking, when will you come? More than that, Holy Spirit said yes, go. 

So I rang a few car rental companies, there were very few cars actually available for hire as it was peak holiday season but even when we found one, we weren't able to hire it without a ...credit card. Neither Deb nor I have a credit card. Obedient to Holy Spirit we cancelled our credit card accounts and cut up our cards when He led us to. No car rental company would accept a debit card or even cash. But Holy Spirit said, go. 

Later on that day a friend came to visit. She gave us some interesting suggestions of hiring a shuttle service which acted like a taxi. We looked up the price of that and it was way beyond our budget, even one way. Then our friend, being super helpful, suggested another option. After all the efforts of trying to hire a car and failing and the taxi service being too expensive, I finally got it. It was supposed to be a work of the Spirit not of the flesh. Once I got the revelation, I could I immediately rest in God and I did. I let go of trying to get there somehow, someway. Then the peace came. If God said we'd be there, we'd be there. 

We went out to a supper theatre with my family that night, we had a great time, I didn't think about the car rental thing once. We came back late that night, having danced, sang and been entertained. We were in high spirits. As I was preparing for bed my mom made a passing remark about checking my email for a car rental confirmation. My mom worked in the travel business and so when we had initially started our car rental search I had asked her if she could help, she tried but nothing seemed to come of it. That's when I rang the car rental companies myself. So I double checked with my mom, 'did you say confirmation?' She said, 'Yes.' I promptly checked my emails. Sure enough, there was an email confirming that we had a rented car that would be ready for our collection the NEXT DAY. I asked my mom to ring the company to double check that it was all actually viable and confirmed, she did. It was. It was a miracle. But would they accept our debit card as payment? We chose to stand in faith.

The next day as I attended a friend's wedding, Deb and my brother drove to the airport to collect our rental car. They arrived home with the rental car, a white VW Polo with that new car smell, shortly after I did. Deb said, the lady at the car rental counter didn't even blink when she offered her debit card to pay for the car, she efficiently processed all the paperwork - even for a different drop off location - and handed over the keys. We drove to my cousin's rented apartment with stunning views over the seafront at Hermanus. We were welcomed warmly and enjoyed two glorious sun shiny days there together. Then we drove back via the coastal road, stopping to enjoy the cliff views and the sun sparkling off the Atlantic. We got back into Cape Town in time for drop off and handed over the keys, again, without fuss from the car rental company. 

Now that's what I call a work of the Spirit. Sometimes it looks like this: let go and let God.