No Alternative Fuel

Currently I'm working my way through Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.  It had been recommended to me while I was in high school, at the same time as The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but I don't know that I could have handled it then.  While doing devotions on my SheReadsTruth app, though, I came across a comment that referenced it, and I thought it was time I read it.

I was surprised by the following passage in the chapter "The Shocking Alternative":  

"And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history--money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery--the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.  The reason why it can never succeed is this.  God made us:  invented us as a man invents an engine.  A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else.  Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself.  He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to feed on.  There is no other."

Comparing our spirituality to a car?  You might think I'd never pondered it, but I had.  The fact that I'd done it so recently and by a revelation, and now here I was, stumbling over it in my reading, that's what surprised me.

I had been praying for guidance for my husband, mostly with his career in mind, though also somewhat generally.  And while sitting in church, listening to a sermon, I got a special (separate) message:  A car without a driver cannot steer itself; but even a car with a driver, if it does not have gas, cannot go where the driver steers it.  Not a direct quote, but I think I've captured the gist.  

I had never thought of it this way before, though I probably should have.  Afterall, I learned from my earthly father that you never leave for a car trip with less than a full tank.  While I still prayed for direction and guidance, I added to my request spiritual fullness.  I praised God, and I wanted to make sure that as He was leading, we were ready to follow--and had the fuel to do it!

I was reminded of this once more over the weekend as we were returning home from Rochester.  My husband had put enough gas in the car to get us to Erie, where we could buy more gas cheaper.  Evidently he didn't pick up on the same travelling lesson I had.  

As we were nearing the PA border, I glanced over to see the car's estimation of how much further we could go.  We were in trouble.  We were down to the last 10 miles, and we were on the interstate.  We watched as it dropped to 5, to 0.  We had to pass an exit that did not advertise a gas station.  

I prayed.  Fervently.  And then my mind began calculating, "If we break down, maybe I can call Mentha, and I can ask her to bring us gas?"  

I chastised myself to have faith and prayed some more.  We were pulling up to a gas station with six pumps, five of them full, and a car in front of us was turning in too.  I groaned.  The car pulled into a parking spot instead, and we got right into a pump.  God provided.  It sounds so simple, and someone will probably try to explain the engine and how much gas was probably still in the tank, but God provided.

And not just that, but as Lewis pointed out, He is the fuel.  We can seek other things in this life, but nothing else and no one else will satisfy us like He can.  Sometimes we just need to be reminded.  Again.  And again.  I know I am.

~Hollie