A Sticker

[This is my Faith Post for November 2024.] 

I nearly had a major situation on my hands a couple weeks ago all because of a sticker.  Yes, a basic sticker.  Well, it was at least a sticker that got things started. I was up in the Traverse City area for the Michigan District All Pastors Conference and as the conference ended I decided to head over to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore to enjoy the Fall colors and the beautiful park. While I was still in the area. I enjoyed some great hiking at Sleeping Bear Point and also enjoyed the scenic drive through the park. I made my way out to the little town of Empire to see the visitor center and finish up my time there. It was at the visitor center that the sticker enters the story. 

I happened to see some nice Sleeping Bear Dunes stickers that would be fun to put on the outside of my Chromebook. I had left my wallet and cash in my van however. So I went out to my van to get cash to buy the sticker and as I sat in my driver's seat getting what I needed from my wallet my key slipped out of the back of my shorts. I exited the vehicle with the key still on the seat, and for some reason the doors of the vehicle locked on my exit. I realized instantly what had happened but it was too late.   Going back out to the car for that infamous sticker had now put me in quite the predicament.

I was locked out and I was almost 5 hours away from the spare key. This certainly could have been a moment for great panic. How would I get in my vehicle?  How would I get home?  Where would help come from?  Not to mention, I was dressed in shorts and short sleeves from the hiking and I couldn't remain outside forever as the temps began to drop.  And to top it all off my phone battery was down to 30% and if it ran out my options would really run thin. What was I going to do? 

Life certainly has a way of throwing us situations like these. One might look at them as tests from the Lord to see just how we'll handle things. Maybe it was a test from the Lord.  Maybe it was just a matter of cause and effect and the cause was my own stupidity in the moment. 

As I assessed the sitation I had one thing in my favor: I was in a relatively safe location. I was at the visitor center and I could go inside and stay comfortable for a while. It was 1:30 p.m. at the time and the center didn't close until 4:00 p.m.  So I had some time to figure things out.

As I weighed through my options it dawned on me that it was possible my AAA subscription might be able to help.  My family and I had used it in the past for dead car batteries and towing disable vehicles and I thought I could recall they also assist with getting locked out. So I opened up my app and very soon found that this was indeed the case. I began the simple process of requesting assistance for this and they came back with a response in the app that in 2 hours they would have someone there. That would bring them there by 3:30 p.m. and things might be able to work out, assuming they could get me in my vehicle.

Much to my delight a tow truck driver called about 40 minutes later and said they were about 30 minutes away and they would arrive on site to give assistance. I passed the time in the visitor center taking in the exhibits and indeed the driver arrived and in under a minute they had me in the vehicle.   It was actually quite interesting to see how the two truck driver did it.  They inserted a kind of sleeve in the crack between the door and the body of the vehicle and then inflated it enough to insert a metal wire into the vehicle.  The guy then maneuvered this metal wire over to the door locked to manual move it into the unlock position.  That was it.  It was pretty cool to see and equally disturbing seeing how easily someone could break into your vehicle.

In what could have been a very difficult and long day it turned out to be just a 90 minute delay with some fretting.  I really didn't wish for someone from my family running a spare key 5 hours North and then driving the 5 hours back.  I also didn't want to get stranded outside or have to find some kind stranger with a nice home to hole up in while I figured things out. The Lord provides in amazing ways. 

As I was hiking earlier that day I had been working through sermon thoughts from Mark 10 which was the upcoming Gospel text.  Its the passage where Jesus says "with God all things are possible"  I did end up preaching that text on the subsequent Sunday highlighting that we believe in the God who can and did raise the dead with Jesus being raised, never to die again.  And our God who can raise the dead is also able to make many other impossibles now possible.

It really is something amazing that the God who can raise the dead and give sight to the blind can also do the little things like making sure I'm taking care of when I foolishly lock myself out of my car.  Our God is the God of all things, the big things, and the little things.  He has taken care of the big things in sin and death with Jesus' death and resurrection.  We certainly wish to keep our faith in these things for sure.  But we are also invited to pray and lift the little things up to God as well.  Even if it is a frantic moment of getting locked out of your vehicle.

I hope this sticker lasts for a nice long time and I enjoy looking at it and remembering the situation that it caused. While our relationship started off a little rocky, I will be grateful now for the memory that it has given me.

To God be the glory.

Mark Witte is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church.
You can contact him at pastorwitte@gmail.com