1998 Cavalier vs. Semi

            When I returned from Mexico I found that I had a nice little welcome home surprise waiting for me.  When I left for Mexico I had left my car parked at the AIM office since I had rented a van to drive down to Mexico.  We didn’t get home from Mexico until some where around midnight Friday night.  Sop Saturday morning I was driving back to the office to get my car when I received a phone call from a guy telling me that he had hit my car.  No big deal right?  Well, then he told me that he had hit it with a semi.  He was apparently trying to turn around in the parking lot in the middle of the night and he didn’t see my car.  He caught the passenger side rear corner of car with the trailer and dragged my car about ten feet sideways.  Then he caught the back of AIM’s truck and dragged it completely sideways before realizing what a mess he had on his hands. 

            I found myself wanting to be angry and wanting to be upset about it, but I just couldn’t.  As luck would have it, I actually know the guy and he has done some trips with AIM and he is currently driving a semi to pay off his debt so he can return to the mission field.  So I’m left trying to figure out how to respond.  I admire him for trying to get debt free before going to the mission field, but at the same time he just wiped out two vehicles.  As I’m trying to sort through this mess the Lord keeps bringing to mind all of the times where I have broke something or hit something and people have given me grace and let me off the hook.  I can remember having to go wake up my best friend’s dad to tell him that I backed a trailer into his car door and put a nice crease in it.  I apologized to him and feared the worse, but was even more surprised by his response.  He forgave me and didn’t ask for anything in return.  I have all of these past memories of my “screw-ups” in my head as I try to process things.  Then the Lord brings to mind Matthew 18:21-35.  This is the parable of the unmerciful servant.  Essentially the story is about a servant who owes his Master a ton of money and would have been thrown in prison, but he fell to his knees and begged his Master to cut him some slack.  The Master took pity on him and canceled all of his debt.  After this the servant went out and found other servants who owed him money and demanded that they pay it back and would not forgive them of their debts.  The Master gets word of it and has the servant thrown in Jail to be tortured until he can pay back all that he owed.

            After considering all of this I chose to show this guy grace.  I told him that I would fix the damage myself and that we could settle it outside the insurance company that way it would not go on his record.  It was the strangest thing because I found myself saying, “Man, I’m glad he hit my car instead of someone else’s.” I have a complete peace about it because I know that I can get used parts for really cheap and I know that it will all work out.  I’m also not bothered by the inconvenience of having to repair it myself.  I guess all that to say, “Welcome back from Mexico.”