Life Coaching: Looking At Life Through a Sunroof

I seem to have gotten off track with my blog over the Christmas holidays, and I’m having trouble getting back on! Then, I had trouble with the website posting last week, and I got frustrated. Things of that nature happen frequently at the Jackson house, mainly because I’m like Dory on “Finding Nemo.” I have the attention span of a gnat. Look! Squirrel!

At any rate, last week, I did something I hate…I went to the car dealership. The sunroof on my car is leaking. That’s bad enough in itself, but I would rather have a root canal than sit in that uncomfortable waiting room. I squirm. I dither. I play “Pet Rescue” on my phone. I scroll. I stew and fret. This day, however was just a bit different. I struck up a conversation with a sweet young college student sitting beside me. She was a finance major, getting ready to graduate and the manager had just told her she needed to spend $1200 to fix her car. He just threw that number out there like it was nothing. I told her I didn’t think he’d given that amount of money the proper respect it deserved. We had a little bit of a laugh, and she left with her car while I sat and waited while they explored my leaky roof.

I am a shameless eavesdropper on other people’s conversations. I have tried to break this habit, but it seems like i just can’t. Because after putting my two cents worth in on the college student’s conversation with the repair manager, I immediately jumped into an extended convo with the two women on my left. I am an equal opportunity chatter. I will chat with anyone within a one mile radius of my mouth. It was the word “widow” that caught my attention, you see. Both women were widows. That’s right, not one but TWO widows were sitting to the left of me and they were lamenting doing things on their own, like bringing their car into the shop. Of course, being a widow myself, I had to interject my spicy little self into their conversation with the following, “Excuse me, but did you say you were both widows? I’m a widow, too! That’s THREE widows in a row! What are the odds of that!?” The exchanges that followed were heartfelt, grieving, and kindred. I had been a widow the longest. One had just lost her husband a few months prior and the other one, two years ago. We were all at different locations, but all on the same journey—a journey toward wholeness and a journey toward God and His goodness.

I left that day, thinking the dealership had fixed my leaky sunroof. They did not. But I now know I wasn’t there for the sunroof. I was there for those three women. All of them. The college student who was calling her parents and asking them what to do about her car repair. The two widows who were grieving the loss of their soulmates. Even the repair shop manager and I had a conversation about life while I was waiting on them to bring my car around. He started that one, not me, believe it or not. Don’t get me wrong—God doesn’t want me to drive around with a leaky roof. But God is extremely interested in how I respond to others. He’s more interested in His people making those kingdom connections. He is more interested in our hearts. He is more interested in me reaching out to others in a time of need. He is more interested in His children.

Tomorrow, I am going to try something else with the sunroof. It may or may not work. But even though I got frustrated with dealership after it rained again this weekend, I can’t help but be glad I went, even if my sunroof is still in the same state it was in on Friday. I got a chance to meet some lovely ladies, and even share a little of my story with them, and they shared a lot more of their stories with me. God is on His throne.