When everything goes wrong — flat tires, sick kids, and broken lights — it’s easy to miss God’s hand at work. Here’s how to see His mercy in the middle of your mess.
Friday was the Mondayest Friday ever.
You know the kind — where the coffee tastes off, your hair won’t cooperate, and the universe seems to have hit shuffle on your sanity playlist.
Mine started at 5 a.m. when I realized half our house had gone dark. No lights in the living room or Monkey Boy’s bedroom. Just darkness and confusion. Hubs spent half the day flipping breakers, testing outlets, and mumbling things that did not sound like prayer requests. Finally, he caved and called an electrician — who of course couldn’t come for three days.
All that tinkering meant he’d be working late, which meant I’d be making the drive solo to drop Miss Bug and Bean Boy off with their dad — an hour and a half away. Normally, that’s our little adventure: Sonic drinks, loud road trip songs, SpongeBob on the DVD player, and way too many napkins.
But not this day.
The Sonic app (which, I swear, is the McDonald’s ice cream machine of apps) went down right as I pulled in. Our order was wrong. We got delayed. And I thought, Fine. Whatever. Just a few minutes behind. We’ll be okay.
Then came the bing.
Low tire pressure.
“Uh oh,” I muttered, glancing at the dashboard like it had betrayed me. PSI dropped faster than the acorn that made Chicken Little panic. I pulled off, put air in it, and got back on the road — for approximately one mile. Bing. Again. This time it was dropping like a rock.
I pulled over again. And that’s when Miss May announced from the back seat, “Mommy, I don’t feel—”
(You can imagine how that sentence ended.)
There I was. On the side of the highway. One flat tire. Five kids. One vomiting.
But here’s where God showed up.
We were only ten minutes from my brother’s house. The kids’ dad was able to meet me closer. My brother came to help, and as he wrestled with my sad excuse for a car jack, a sheriff’s deputy pulled over with a two-ton jack and a helping hand.
Within an hour, we were safe, fed, and back on the road. It wasn’t hot. It wasn’t raining. We were never alone.
And that’s the part I almost missed — the part where God was quietly saying, “I’ve got you.”
Faith in the Flat Tire
It reminded me of 2 Kings 6, when Elisha’s servant panicked as they were surrounded by an enemy army. He cried out, “What shall we do?”
And Elisha said,
“Don’t be afraid. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
— 2 Kings 6:16 (NIV)
Then Elisha prayed that his servant’s eyes would be opened — and suddenly he saw the hills filled with horses and chariots of fire.
The enemy was real. The danger was real. But so was God’s presence.
That’s how it is in our chaos, too. We see the flat tire, the sickness, the broken things — but God sees the protection, the timing, the help already on the way.
He doesn’t always fix the mess before it happens, but He’s always there in it.
Devotional Action
Next time your day feels like a Monday that won’t quit, stop and ask:
🟡 “Where do I see God’s mercy in this moment?”
Write down even the smallest things — the friend who answered, the stranger who helped, the calm that came when it shouldn’t have.
Because when we start naming the good, we start seeing God again.
Guided Prayer
“Lord, thank You for showing up even in my mess.
Help me see Your hand when things go wrong,
and remind me that You never leave me stranded
on the side of life’s road.
Open my eyes to Your protection and provision,
even when I don’t understand the plan.
Amen.”
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