A Speculation v2.0

     Saturday night we left Ginya's UHaul at the Huffman's because we didn't want to park it on our narrow street, and then Jeanette drove me out to get it Sunday morning to drive down to Grass Valley.  Since we were making a stop at a coffee shop on the way, we decided to drive surface streets through downtown over to the Huffman's rather than backtracking a few blocks to get on the freeway.  But we forgot about the Shamrock Run.  (Or rather, Shamrock Fitness Walk as noone seemed to be in much of a hurry).

     We were stuck not moving through several lights, so finally we decided to make a left, and ended up in a bus only lane, with a bus driver yelling at us out her window.  Sometime later we got out of that mess and managed to turn onto the street we wanted to be on, and thought we were home-free, finally heading to the freeway.  But while traffic had been moving (slightly), by that time the Run (Walk) had started and traffic locked up.  We were trapped, with the route encircling us, and sat watching light after light turn green then red again.  Eventually the police paused the Walk to let some cars through, which gave us hope.  20 minutes later they paused it again, and we managed to make it through.  After an hour and a half of being stuck, we finally made it out to the UHaul so I could begin my long journey.  Two of us were pretty frustrated, though I looked back and asked Maia if she was stressed, and she shook her head no, then giggled. 

     Many hours later, on the road, I began to see signs warning of high wind from Yreka to Weed.  The radio kept intoning over and over again that 'high profile vehicles were not advised.'  I began to pray, and watched the spray off of vehicles in front of me to see if any of it appeared to be suddenly whipped around in a gust.  The wind never materialized, and I made it through that section just fine.  Later though, when I talked to Ginya and Ed who had travelled through that section a few hours earlier, they said that they had indeed hit incredibly wind and been blown all over the place.  When they stopped for gas in Weed they could barely walk it was so blustery. 

     So I wonder, what would have happened had I passed through there an hour and a half earlier like I had intended?  I can't know, just as I can't know God's reason's for many things simply because I don't have the prerequisite knowledge in order to understand.  But I do ponder whether leaving earlier would have caused me to end up in a ditch somewhere between Yreka in Weed in an overturned UHaul.  Did God have us get stuck in the Shamrock Run in order to save my life?  Likely this is not the case, as the fact that I can imagine this speculation means it is probably not the correct reason.  More likely perhaps is that He wanted to teach us patience.  But there is something to be gained from this sort of speculation.  I know, from history, from the lives of friends, and from my own experience, that God is a good God.  So what do I do with that when I get stuck in downtown Portland for no evident reason?  I can change my mind and decide that He must not be good.  After all, I did pray that He would get us out of there.  I choose instead to trust that in this scenario, while I cannot get at His reasons in order to know whether He was acting for my good or not--I choose to trust that He was indeed acting with my good in mind.  I have example after example in my life to lead me to this conclusion, and there are a number of possible explanations, albiet none that I can know for sure, that would fit this scenario and show Him to be Good.  I choose to rely on the vast majority of evidence, and trust that this person I know is not two-faced and acting inconsistently with who I know Him to be everytime I am unable to see why He is doing things.