Days of Frustration

You ever had one of those days when everything seems to go wrong? When everything you planned to accomplish either doesn't get done or is it so difficult you just want to scream. I did, that was today! You know being a Christian doesn't exclude you from tough times or frustration in real life scenarios. Mine, started getting that way last week. My truck radiator gave up the ghost. She blew, I mean she blew and steam came out from there so thick, I thought my truck was on fire. I began to look for a new radiator and of course in our world today of auto parts, the price is a poor man's weekly wage. Now, get this, a Dodge 1996 Ram 1500 pickup radiator which is made of plastic and aluminum they want $225.00 for. Now, I know aluminum prices have gone up, but that's ridiculous. Well, I got a quote for one that was used for $125.00 in Tyler so I drove up there Saturday and they weren't open. The hunt was on, same kind of pricing for new ones there too. I begin to check out junk yards and that came to no avail. Finally, I went to an old source in Tyler where I had a radiator repaired back in the 70's. He had moved closer to the North Loop off North Highway 14. Well my repairman told me he couldn't get the tanks for the thing, and that otherwise he couldnt repair it, but then again maybe he could, "bring it by", he said. So, Tuesday, I drove up to Tyler again, he beat around the bush a little then said, "I have a new tank for that", he said, "but they are expensive, 120.00 dollars to do the job if it will take".At this point I said, "go ahead and see what you can do". Well, I went up to get it Wednesday, and he said he had fixed it, charged me what he said he would. Told me it was plugged up a lot but he cleaned it all up for me.I paid the man and went home. I had to go to work that evening so I couldn't get it in yet. So today, I get up bright and early, I was going to attack removing the old thermostat and replacing it and do the radiator on Friday when I would be off from work all day. Well, don't even dream of doing a thermostat on a Dodge truck, the two bolts mind you, to remove the top hose and get to the thermostat are buried so deep down under a ton of brackets for the AC and the Alternator, only a genius or someone very patient with lots of time can get it out. I gave up and said to myself, " it's staying and I'm praying, that it will last".
I started putting the radiator back in and got to fastening the right side back to the shroud that goes around the fan and all and , no clip fastners for the bolts to go in, no bushing to hold the radiator up against the cross bar. The guy had forgot to take them out of my old radiator and put them in the new tank he put on. I could have screamed at this point. I was frustrated! Now, the test comes in. What do we do, when things get beyond our control at times. Well, I hopped on my motorcycle drove to town and found a radiator shop, the only one around, that may not even be in operation anymore as the guy told me, the son of the guy that use to do it had quit recently. Anyway, it was down on the Y at the corner. The guy was real nice he knew exactly what I was looking for and gave them to me, at no charge. Well, that relieved some of the pain of the day. I went home with them in my pocket ready to get after it. My grand daughter brought me my mail, Oh no, a letter I was expecting didn't come, so I called the party sending it, and guess what they mailed it to the wrong address. Well not really, see 911 has one address, and UPS will deliver to that one, but no, the U.S. Postal service has another one. So, needless to say, the mail I was expecting, which just happen to be very important to me, is lost in mail land somewhere. Frustrated again!, Well, the radiator replacement went well. Pain relieved again. Now, I am trying to put water in the radiator, and flush it, and along comes my 5 year old grand daughter wanting to play in the water with the hose, while I am asking her to turn it off, she is watering everything in sight. I finally cut it off myself, with a battle of course. I'm trying to finish up and the cell phone rings about this time. My wife calls, I vent, my frustration at her I guess, because she thought I was angry and wouldnt talk to me in that condition. Well, once I got it all together, got my bath, sat down to relax before having to go to work, I placed a call to her and apologized. What a jerk, I am! How often, do we as husbands and wife's allow our frustrations to get to us, and our spouse has nothing to do with it, and we blow up on them. A lot, I am sure. The difference should be as in my own case, we need to apologize and start over. Start over with prayer as well. We are not to be anxious the scripture says, we are to take everything in prayer to him, we forget, I did. We are not to worry about tommorrow, the evil of today is sufficient. I think Christ understood we were going to have days, when radiators would blow up, bolts wouldn't work, kids would play with water and get in our way, and letters wouldn't come we expected. He knew, because he lived as a Carpenter for 30 some odd years. He had to know the frustration we would encounter. I'm sure he hit his thumb a few times with His hammer. Ouch! He is a help in time of need, for scripture says, he was tempted in everyway as we are, yet He didn't sin. What a wonderful thing to have His Spirit there to comfort us, but also to point out to us when we need to say, I'm sorry. Isn't it great to be a Christian and have the Holy Spirit help us when we are wrong or have wronged others?