The Serpentine Belt

Do you ever feel like the devil is trying to bring you down? That's exactly how we felt a few weeks ago.

We had just had an amazing time at the Weekend to Remember marriage conference, renewing our vows and learning how to better communicate, serve and understand each other. We also had a three-day work week and great anticipation for our upcoming Thanksgiving trip to Washington, D.C.

All seemed right in the world.

Then we were thrown back to reality. As you can imagine, being gone all weekend followed by a short work week, we were left with little time to get caught up and prepared for our trip. On Monday of that week, we decided to divide and conquer after work to get as much checked off of our to-do lists as possible. We were going to be SO efficient...

That is until when, as I was headed to the chiropractor after work, the power steering quit working in our car. I quickly realized that the serpentine belt had made it's last revolution under the hood of our car. After my appointment, I tried to limp the car home--getting a full upper body workout in the process--but the car overheated. I was stuck in a grocery store parking lot, and Kelsey had to cancel her errands to come and get me. Both frustrated, the night was lost as far as productivity was concerned.

On the way home from the grocery store parking lot we talked about how we should have expected this. The devil loves to creep into our lives when things are going smoothly and snatch away our happiness, hoping that amidst the chaos we will turn on each other creating an un-needed argument. We prayed about it and revised our plans for the week to work through this unforeseen setback.

It ended up not being a big deal at all. I was able to change the serpentine belt and get the car back in working order by Tuesday night. It cost about $50 for the two parts to fix it. We had all evening on Wednesday to pack and prepare for our trip, and it went off without a hitch!

As I was changing the serpentine belt, I found some interesting symbolism in the situation. Serpentine = serpent-snake-devil (you know, the same one who tempted Eve in the garden). I stopped what I was doing and prayed that God would send that serpent back where he came from. God certainly answered the prayer, and I felt a whole lot better, too.

The moral of the story is that we can't ignore the fact that the devil is always at work against us in our lives. He is here on the world's behalf to tempt us to believe that what we have on earth is better than what we will experience in heaven. It's important that we guard our hearts from this and call him a liar when he enters our thoughts. And stay focused on the eternal prize!

Has the devil tried to bring you down lately?