The Under-Inflated Tire

“Hey!  Your trailer tire just blew!”

Yelled the semi driver next to me... on the right side of me... on I94... in three lanes of Chicago traffic!  Of course, I happened to be in the far-left lane... which I had to limp across to get to the side of the road.  My guardian angel must have put himself in front of the two trucks next to me because, the next thing I knew, I was pulled over on the right shoulder of the road.

Seven hours earlier...

The morning of the same day, preparing for the trip, a thought crossed my mind, “I need a new spare tire for the trailer”.  The tires on the trailer were recently replaced with new ones from Tractor Supply, but the spare looked bad.  Returning from Tractor Supply with a new spare, I proceeded to unbolt the old spare from the front of the trailer and bolt on the new one.  Then another thought... “I should put the socket set used to bolt the spare to the trailer on the back-seat floor”.

Next, I proceeded to check the lug nuts holding the tires on the trailer for tightness.  Scrounging around my work bench, I retrieved a ½ inch ratchet with a socket and extension to fit the lugs.  Checking all the lugs, here comes another thought... “I should put the ratchet, extension and socket in the back-seat door pocket.”

Move forward with me now...

Seven hours later... standing next to my trailer on I94 in rush hour traffic, I realized all those random thoughts I had in the morning weren’t random at all!  They were Holy Spirit thoughts placed in my head to prepare me for this moment.  Everything I needed... a new spare tire and all the ratchets and sockets were safely available to me in the back seat.  Blown tire replaced, we merged back into traffic and made it safely to “Hotel Hell”... but that’s a different story for another post...

The next morning...

My wife and I were discussing the previous day’s activities and pondered why the tire would blow.  We started thinking maybe the new tires didn’t have enough air in them.  My son picked up a tire pressure gauge for me and we checked the two tires on the trailer... 20 pounds.  Then I checked the recommended pressure on the blown spare tire... 60 pounds!  We surmised the blown tire probably was only inflated to 20 pounds as well.  I didn’t know, when I bought the tires, they came under-inflated.

You’re probably asking...

Why didn’t the Holy Spirit put a thought in my mind to check the tire pressure?  The answer is, He Did!  The day before... twice... he prompted me to check the tire inflation and all I did was kick the tires and determined they were “hard”.  If I had taken His prompting more serious... and actually checked the tire pressure... I would have saved myself a lot of turmoil and stress on I94!

Psalm 32:8 says... 

“I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.  I will advise you and watch over you.”  I’m so glad God doesn’t stop speaking when we don’t listen to Him or ignore Him.  When He tries to warn us about the under-inflated tires in our lives, He still gently watches over us to help us get over to the shoulder of the road, when we mess things up. He’s not an, “I told you so” God.  He’s an, “I love you” God... even prompting us to put the sockets in the back seat before we set out on our journey.

Thank you, Lord...

For loving us and for promising us You will never leave us or forsake us, even when we find ourselves on the shoulder of the road.