The Magic Dent Repair Conclusion

So what exactly is the lesson and spiritual principle I learned from the previous post, “Magic Dent Repair Adventure”? It’s partially wrapped up in the adage that God works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform. It certainly was an unconventional way to go about getting a dent repaired! Yet perhaps there is a weightier message on both faith and trust.

Handing over the car keys was the supreme test of whether I would have faith in Mr. Magic Dent repair and trust him with my rental car. So too, once you surrender to Jesus and give Him “the keys to your car” you’re no longer in the driver’s seat! If you’re going to conquer the fear of giving Him your all, you’ll need to trust Him when things don’t seem as they appear. When I first saw Mr. Magic Dent man’s NASA badge, I didn’t trust it was real with his outdated picture ID. Though Jesus’s credentials are far more trustworthy than Mr. Magic Dent repair man’s badge, you first need to have faith to believe they are real.

You can read the work of historians, scholars, lawyers and writers who chronicled the life of Jesus and “proved” His resurrection, but it still takes an element of faith to believe. To know Jesus, we can understand Him in part through logical and empirical evidence in reading the Bible and visiting Israel and the places where he lived and walked. But to attain to a deeper belief, experiencing Jesus takes faith to conquer your fears. I had to believe that Mr. Magic was who he said he was despite my wariness. It seems that here in the Western world we look askance at experiential faith. I had an interesting conversation with my daughter today about this very topic—faith and spirituality (personal relationship with God).

In many circles today, Christians have leaned heavily on the rule keeping part of religion and less on the experiencing God’s presence, which has brought us to a rather shallow view of Christianity. Coming out of a charismatic background with a Baptist love for the scriptures, I’ve viewed God a bit differently than most Westerners. I see both reading the Bible and having a deep personal relationship with God as two sides of the same coin, melded together. It becomes easier to trust God when difficult circumstances head our way, but sometimes I forget. I think the Magic Dent Repair adventure reminded me that God still works in highly personal and very unconventional ways—in parking lots, airplanes, and sitting on benches. (More about that later). Yet it all starts with faith, which can be the most exciting adventure of your life when you do finally hand over those keys to your life.

However, believing in Jesus can be quite different than truly trusting Him when He takes a turn to a destination not even on your map! Not only was it an unconventional way to get a car dent repaired, it took us out of our way, time away from Disney’s Epcot (my favorite), and required me to trust my rental car to someone I didn’t know. Probably some of you think that was crazy, but I think it was the Lord’s provision. Anyway, though I took the proverbial “leap of faith,” I didn’t initially trust the dent repair guy. I hassled him for a full hour.

Sitting on the shuttle, I was a nervous wreck as I explained in the previous post. I demanded that Mr. Magic prove that he was who he claimed to be and doing what he said he would doing. I wanted him to text me a photo of his progress on the dent repair, which he indeed sent. It wasn’t until I got that picture that I fully trusted Mr. Magic, well about 85% trust and 15% fear. It struck me, how much I’m like that in my relationship to God. I want Him to prove to me that what He’s doing is best. I get nervous when things don’t work out the way I want them to, when–He doesn’t answer prayers in my time frame, when relationships are trying, when nasty comments are flung my way, when adult children don’t do what I want, when books don’t sell…and so on. I want life to stay on the road I’ve designed for it, and when I get an occasional dent I want nice, fully equipped repair shops, with clean waiting rooms, not shady parking lots.

Suffice is to say, I didn’t get that! Yet I did get the car repaired for the exact price he quoted, and it passed the rental car’s inspection. Much of Christianity is like that. God never promised a rose garden without prickly thorns. Jesus tells us, “In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33)!

Therefore, I need to trust Him even when on the surface the situation seems crazy! That’s how I learn my lessons well. How about you?

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