Moments with Meryl
by Meryl Langley

On October 6, Jonathan, our son, passsed his driving test. On 10 October, he crashed his car into a bus stop. Thankfully, no one was hurt. The damage rendered the car unable to be driven, so for the following two weeks I had to use public transport for work, shopping, etc. With hindsight, I would’ve done things differently (not allowing Jon use of the family car with his friends as passengers, albeit for only a short distance). However, that was past, and because of being Christ in my form, I could accept the things I could not change. It felt like I was lacking courage to change the things I could, though. “Well, Meryl, Christ is courage, and consequently, so am I.” Rules were subsequently laid down as to the conditions under which any vehicle we had in the future would be used by our son. Having affirmed who I was, I confronted Jon with these stipulations. We met with not one objection! Humble pie takes some time to digest, doesn’t it?

So here I was with the inconvenience of using the bus. It felt such a waste of time waiting for the bus to arrive-mostly late, of course, times did not coincide with my working hours. Many other things contributed to my level of frustration, such as the expense of fares, occasionally having to have taxis, carrying shopping home etc., etc. “Well, Meryl, what’s happened has happened, so how are you going to react? Let’s face it, this is no major disaster, don’t have a “pity party,” you have a lot to be thankful for, you are the Victor, not the victim here.” The choice was, “the feelings of frustration are not who I am, I accept my situation as the consequences of a previous choice, and Christ as me to go on.” I enjoyed reading on the bus, being driven to work and walking through the town center to the hospital. The whole family learned valuable lessons from those circumstances.

Then the time came to buy another second-hand car. “Where do you start to look; what guarantee have you that your final selection will be reliable? In a couple of words, you haven’t. But Meryl, when you have Christ, you have everything.” Certain events led to telephoning a salesman in connection with a car for sale Jim had seen. On a soul level I did not feel capable of carrying out such a task. “Just do it, Meryl, it’s Christ, anyway”! The said vehicle was not for us, as the insurance would be too high. However, there was one car that sounded ideal. I explained we were mot mobile to travel 9 miles to the garage, so the salesman offered to drive the car to our door step so I could view it. I heard myself accepting the offer and after replacing the phone, I thought “You’re crazy, what do YOU know about cars, you’ll be conned.” “Well, of course, I don’t know about cars, but Christ must do, since He is all and in all.” When I saw the car it looked wonderful: good body work, low mileage, up-to-date service record, 3 months warranty and in our price range. I said “Yes, my husband will call at the local garage and confirm this evening.” He did, and we now are enjoying driving our ‘new car’.