I thought we could handle it, though, starting at 9 a.m. and finishing up at about noon, before the day got seriously hot. I wanted to leave after lunch get as far as I could to the east, and even perhaps turn north, before I stopped for the night, perhaps somewhere in Mississippi.

Problem number one: The woman and her two sons didn’t come. Problem two: The temperature rapidly soared into the high 90s, with a heat index over 100 and a blazing sun. It was, in a word, miserable.

So, working until we thought we would drop, we finally got everything loaded, and the truck was full to the tailgate. And it only took us -- one strong young man, two hard-working Chinese students, and me … seven and a half hours! So much for my good start. We finished just before dinner time, and were fortunate to do that.

Then, the car carrier trailer broke, and we couldn’t move it for over an hour. After we finally managed to work around that, but before I had gone a mile, the gauges on the truck began to malfunction. I had no idea how much oil pressure or fuel I had, and had to stop. It was still over 90 degrees, now dinner time, and I was stuck. The rental company didn’t offer any hope of help before two more hours. Was I unhappy? Well…

So I went to a motel, while it took until 10 p.m. to get service to the truck. At the motel, I turned on the Weather Channel and was surprised to see the change in that “little storm” in the Gulf, the one named Katrina. She had become a monster, and was headed precisely to the same place I was! And the roads were jammed with people trying to escape, all using the same highway I had planned!

So, being an astute young lad, I got the message immediately and changed my plan. I left at first light, driving straight north, getting as far away from the coast as I could.

To say I was frustrated is a big understatement. I thought several things about the truck rental company for which I had to seek forgiveness. However, my intense frustration over their junky equipment was easing now, knowing that if the truck had run properly, I would have driven straight into the teeth of the storm.

And as I began to think a little more rationally, I was somewhat chagrined as I felt compelled to thank God for an unreliable truck. Could it be that God had a hand in my getting that truck and trailer? I mean, it was really junk, even though it was new. Besides the broken trailer, malfunctioning gauges, and marginal brakes, it ran out of fuel on me in the middle of a construction zone, while the gauge said I should have 20 gallons of fuel left. Give thanks? For that? Yes.

That brings up the question of all the times when things don’t go as we plan or expect in our lives. Could it be that we get caught up with frustration over things not going as planned, or not going our way, when in fact, God is working for our good and we don’t see it? Are we ascribing things to the devil -- or anything else unpleasant -- when in fact it is God at work? I don’t know a nice, neat answer to that question.

But, especially after my recent “moving experience,” I wonder how many times I might have missed the still, small voice of God, to the point that he had to throw all sorts of obstacles in my path to get me to turn away from disaster. Have you ever considered that?

I wonder how many times God uses the problems in our lives -- illness, broken cars and trucks, “natural disasters,” even death -- because we are so spiritually hard of hearing? It’s a sobering thought.

It is pretty clear from reading the Bible that high on God’s priority list is having a close relationship with you and me. Someone has called it a “conversational relationship,” and it is that, but I believe God seeks something far more intimate than a “conversational” level. It doesn’t take a very close relationship to have a conversation, does it? (Though, as I consider it, not many of us even have conversations with God.)

I wonder how much heartache and frustration we would have avoided if we listened and responded to the “still, small voice” of God in the first place? I am certain that in my life it’s a considerable amount.