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Last Thursday night, it was freezing cold and dark when I drove my car out of the parking lot at my working place. I immediately felt that there was something wrong with my car. I could hear a stream of strange noises was coming out of the right hand (passenger) side of my car, even with all the windows closed. I tried to ignore it initially and thought it might go away after the car was warming up. After three turns, I find it was not the case because my car was not responding to my handling. At that time, I had this hunch “Oh-oh, not good, a flat tire!” So, I slowly drove the car to a side road and checked the tire on the passenger side. Here it is – a flat tire!

As you can imagine, I was not a happy camper in that moment. Especially when I realize I need to change the flat tire under such a frigid winter night! With non-cooperating hands and fingers, due to the coldness, I struggled through for an extensive period before I put the spare tire on. When it was done, I slowly drove the car out but only to find that the spare tire was not quite functioning – tire was a little bit under-pressure and it was hesitating. However, I thought it could be due to the cold temperature and I continued on, eventually, I safely arrived at my home. Hooray! 🙂

A flat tire incident usually causes an unpleasant experience. It interrupts our original travel plan – it gives us hassles, additional expense, misery, and a possible life threatening situation. I thank our Lord for His protection during this encounter.

• Firstly, the incident was happening on me instead of on my wife. Had this incident happened on my wife, it would be a lot more panicking from her than I can imagine. 🙂
• Second, this incident was occurring on a parking lot instead of in the middle of a highway. If it were not the case, I might run into a risk of car accident at that time.
• Third, there is a spare tire ready in my car allows me to swap with the flat one. In my last flat tire experience, however, the spare tire was also “flat” since it was the very first time we use it! 🙁
• Finally, I had a hat and a pair of gloves to help me in resisting the cold weather.

I couldn’t help but to think that it would be a lot worse than I would have been, if I were not prepared for this kind of situation. It reminds me of the fact that God allows unexpected situations happen in our life. He sometimes uses various situations to remind us that we will have trouble in this world and He is still in control (John 16:33).

The flat tire symptom may occur immediately or gradually due to a puncture or small leaks, without our notice. In our journey of faith, will we run into a “flat tire” situation? You bet! In such a situation, it could be very damaging to our faith and sometimes it may cause many sorrows and difficulties to the church, if we are not aware of it.

My dear brothers and sister, “Do you feel your enthusiasm in serving God is fading? Are you loosing air like in a tire?  If yes, then you are experiencing a “flat tire” syndrome. As your brother or sister, we are your “spare tire” – we can help you to go through the situation, temporarily. However, please remember that the ultimate recovery and fix is to come before our Lord because He is our source of power and our ultimate repair station! He can fix our feeble arms and weak knees if we recognize our symptom and are willing to be repaired.