I am so humbled right now that it is hard for me to make sense of the rattling thoughts jumping around in my head like Mexican jumping beans.
I was fortunate today. I pulled the Pastor out of the ditch.
I bet that made you read it twice. Yes I was blessed. So many lessons in 5 minutes worth of triumph over trials.
April 28, 2019 and it is snowing a perfect little wet snow storm outside. Each flake is lovingly holding onto another flake and so on until there is nothing but sticking snowflakes. And they are falling very quickly from the sky. Since approximately 6 am this morning, I am guessing in my measurement-skills-lacking mind that we have had about 3” of snow.
As Pastor was dutifully making his way to the services in our small town today, I am sure he was having a hard time telling where the side of the road was. He got a little close to the side and his tire started to go over. The rest was history. What must have been a gut-grabbing skating trip, his truck slid sideways down a steep embankment that eventually ends in a reservoir. He changed the profile of one of the reflector poles on his way, which probably slowed him down to a stop. Unfortunately, it left his pickup precariously perched off the side of the highway.
Today is probably one of the only days that something good came from me staying home from church. Curtis had gone to feed so I had decided to stay home and get my own chores done. As I was sitting at my computer, a parishioner drove up to our house and told me what the problem was, pointing to Pastor’s pickup up the road. I knew it was up to me. Quickly I changed back into my warm feeding clothes and ran up the hill to the tractor. I stopped to get a tow rope from the shed and started trying to call Curtis for instructions in getting the tractor into four-wheel drive.
Regrettably, by the time I had reached the Pastor’s pickup, I had not been able to get in touch with Curtis so the Pastor and I were going to have to figure things out. Turning the flashers on, I got out of the tractor and greeted the Pastor. I could tell by his response that he was shocked that it was me and not Curtis in the tractor. He is absolutely my favorite Pastor in the world and his giggle‑laugh is like something you might hear from Santa Claus.
As he had no gloves, I reached in to the tractor and gave him a pair of Curtis’s gloves, and pulled out the tow rope. He hooked it to the pickup and draped it over the forks of the tractor and we started to pull. Immediately I could see that my end of the rope was not going to do well so I got out and we re-engineered the way they were hooked to the pickup.
Up until that time, I had made no attempts to try to figure out how to put it in four-wheeled drive but was silently hoping Curtis had left it in and all would be well. When the tractor started to pull the pickup, the back tires started spinning and I knew my wishing wasn’t going to get the truck out of the ditch.
Pastor met me at the tractor and I could see the concern in his eyes. The pull that I had initially started, had added a backwards angle to the pickup, and the tractor was about all that was holding him from sliding into the water. Precarious-plus was now the pickup’s new position. I showed him the two potential levers that I had to choose from for four-wheeled drive and he eliminated one. He voiced concern that maybe we needed a bigger tractor. I pulled up on the remaining lever and stated that when I get him going, I just need to keep going. With some trepidation, he said let’s give it a try and back into his pickup he went.
Before I slid it into reverse, I just simply said, “Okay God, whatever you have to lend us would be great right now. Please help me get Pastor out of the ditch.” I put the tractor in reverse, set my jaw and started pulling. Much to my delight, up from the ditch popped a truck and it landed in the middle of the slippery road.
As we were on the road, I told Pastor, “That’s what was missing!” to which he replied, “Yes! Now we know how to put it into four-wheeled drive!”
“No, no,” I said, “I forgot to pray before the last try.”
Pastor laughed his joyous laugh and went upon his way to church. I grinned from ear to ear all the way home delighted that I was able to help out. On the way home, it dawned on me that, for many, the thought of a 5-foot, 4-inch, 50-year-old female jumping into a tractor and pulling them out of the ditch is ludicrous, or some shade thereof. To me, it is normal, everyday choices that are simply the result of being part of a team in which my husband treats me like a teammate – not female, not a housewife, not weak – a teammate. He will teach me whatever it is I want to learn and doesn’t try to stop me when I try something new.
This week, I was trying to encourage a friend of mine who was feeling over-challenged when she was faced with a man-sized task. She kindly let me know that she was not capable of such a thing and I tried to be equally as kind when I told her that I am not just cheerleading, I am telling her it can be done. Been there, done that. Just get your ass out there and do it. Well, maybe I didn’t say that last part but hoping it came out in the kinder version of my optimistic spiel.
It is not because we are physically incapable of doing “man tasks, it is because we have not mentally allowed ourselves to accept the fact that we can do those things. It may look different, slower, or take a lot more vocal distress noises to get the job done, but just because we are women only means that it is easier for us to have and feed babies than it is for men. That is pretty much where the differences end in my book.
As for my husband and I, we are ever so thankful that our team is completed by the good Lord above. He has saved us all and continues to do so daily.
