Praying over something dealing with my vehicle seemed like a silly thing to do at the time. But when I saw that prayer get answered, I started to think there probably are no silly prayers.
The reason why I hesitated to pray about my 2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid was simply because I thought it might be a self-centered prayer. In the past, I had way too much of that trait and didn’t carry much gratitude for any of what I had, including the cars I ever owned. In fact the last car I drove regularly before this was a 2000 Dodge Stratus that I abused regularly until I totaled it by hitting a deer. Not having a job or any type of regular income currently has helped me to grow in appreciation and respect things like my Camry. Like I also do with my old Iphone 3GS or my MacBook Pro from 2006, I do my best these days to treasure what I still have and be grateful for it.
My Toyota Camry Hybrid currently has around 170,000 miles on it and at the present moment, is my primary source of transportation. Since I don’t have the ability to acquire a new or used vehicle, I rely greatly upon this car to hopefully last awhile longer. So I guess you could say that I’m quite anal retentive about its care and that includes any strange noises that suddenly appear.
One of those began during a long drive to see my sister this past Christmas. After driving through a torrential downpour and enduring a lot of hydroplaning, I began to hear this rattling noise somewhere beneath my car. Unfortunately all attempts to locate its source on my own came up empty-handed. I tried to ignore it for a period of time until it got truly annoying. That led me to a car repair shop where I did my best to describe the problem. After repeated inspections at the same place, nothing was discovered.
Not knowing what else to do, I started practicing acceptance and doing my best to tune out the noise from that point forward. And for a time, it worked. That was until it began to grow louder and more frequent. This led me back into a completely different repair shop, on two separate occasions. And while they did hear the noise, the only thing they could come up with was a loose mud flap, which ended up not being the problem either.
At that point, I began to grow in frustration, anger, and even resentment because of it. But as I’ve mentioned in many of my writings, I believe those feelings are poison to my spiritual growth. And I’ve seen how they can take me directly away from being the servant I want to be for my Higher Power. So I ended up praying for help in the matter, several times actually. And it was on that day where I randomly discovered I was drastically low on engine coolant. That led me immediately to a repair shop nearby who was able to fill it up for free. I decided while there to try one last time to locate the source of that noise. And wouldn’t you know it, they did. It was a very loose and rusting away heat shield.
After three long months of trying to deal with it all on my own, prayer led me to the place that was able to locate and fix the problem. I’m really not sure why this prayer was answered, when so many of the others I pray for these days are still in limbo. The fact is though, it did get answered and I’m grateful to my Higher Power for it.
So I am going to believe there probably are no silly prayers in this world and maybe I just had to get out of our own ego’s way and pray for help in the matter. Even though it was a trivial matter in the long run, my Higher Power does appear to be listening. I’m glad I got out of my own way to figure that out…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
