Friday, April 14, 2006

MV to SLC

My wife and I decided to bring the family to Salt Lake City, Utah for the Easter holiday. We were thinking about flying but ultimately decided to drive. From Mountain View, California, it was a 800 mile drive and took about 13 1/2 hours. With two little kids (both of whom had a "bad body" - stomach bug - that day), that's some great time. All things considered, I was really surprised that everything went as well as it did. No traffic, no problems with the car, no rain or snow, the kids did great, and I didn't get drowsy at the wheel. When we left the house that morning, my wife said a little prayer. When we got settled in SLC, I made sure to thank God for listening. The following excerpt from the Screwtape Letters was top of mind:

Don't forget to use the "Heads I win, tails you lose" argument. If the thing he prays for doesn't happen, then that is one more proof that petitionary prayers don't work; if it does happen, he will, of course, be able to see some of the physical causes which led up to it, and "therefore it would have happened anyway," and thus a granted prayer becomes just as good a proof as a denied one that prayers are ineffective.

We'll see how things go next week with the drive home. I doubt they'll go as smoothly as the way out but perhaps I'll be surprised again - and thanking God again for listening.

1 comment:

gnp said...

The return drive only took 13 hours and went just as smoothly as the drive out. And, yes, I thanked God when we got back to MV.