Friday, September 16, 2011

The Underserved Grace of God


Many of you have known me a long time so you know just how scattered I am. It is probably my biggest weakness. Scatterbrained and unorganized. It is something I continually work on. I have good intentions but somehow the details escape me. I try to establish routines and schedules and systems that help me with this. But my mornings seem to be the worst. This is an area where God is really working on me. Two Friday mornings ago I woke up late. On purpose. IE I hit snooze three times on my alarm. I am sure Adam loves it when I do that. I left the house in a rush with my teacher bag, lunch bag, water, Carnation Breakfast, tea, and school iPad. I set everything on the hood of my car so I can load everything into its proper and secure spots. (Three different cupholders). My mind was thinking about how Noah had cried every afternoon I picked him up and how he already hates me and how that wasn't supposed to happen until middle school. I was thinking about Labor Day. And sleeping in the next morning. I was thinking about Auburn football.

About seven minutes later I was singing praise songs and looked out my windshield and saw my school iPad hanging on for dear life as I cruised down Highway 43 at 55 miles an hour. "Oh Lord that is my iPad. Help me." I slowed down slowly and got over to pull over on the shoulder when it took a dive into the middle of the road with heavy morning traffic whizzing by. This iPad was given to me through the Teaching American History Grant. And so it really belongs to Tuscaloosa City Schools. All 600 dollars of it. Not only that but it is where I store my grade and attendance records. I had backed up on paper about a week before but there it was in pieces on the road.

I turned around and prayed and prayed as I went darting through traffic to retrieve it. I didn't cry on my way to school. I formulated a plan. I was still in shock I think. On our current budget we don't have an extra 50 dollars much less an extra 600. It was going to take a long time for me to work and sell enough stuff to pay for it. The teachers around me who know and love me despite my scattered tendencies all commiserated with me. A few even sent condolence emails. But God bless Lisa Matherson. She suggested we plug it up and see if it was readable. We did and believe it or not iTunes recognized the wreckage and preformed a backup. We then summarized that it just needed a screen and digitizer replacement about 350 dollars instead of six hundred. Much more doable. Still making me sick. Where in the budget was I going to squeeze that from?

I double checked the warranty and solidified the fact that no it didn't cover stupid accidents. I made some calls and made an appointment for the Apple store for the following Friday and set to work to salvaging grades. Then I remembered I have a personal Tuscaloosa/Birmingham delivery service. Emily is in class at UA and is here everyday. She gladly offered her services and took it to the Apple store that night, thinking they would send it off to be fixed and I could pick up when in town next week. I had a week to come up with 350 dollars.

This is where the story really picks up.

Emily called me around six to say that the Apple store told her to wait while they fixed it. I immeadiately freaked out. How on earth am I going to come up with 350 dollars in thirty minutes?? My mom graciously offered to cover us until we come into town the next weekend. And she prayed that God would use this situation to show His power and love for me. But on many levels I was still stressing when Emy calls me back.

She said they had to replace the whole thing. And my heart drops. That is 600 dollars!!

Then she says she had some good news. They decided to do it for free. As a surprise replacement. FOR FREE. A SURPRISE. I am in tears. Why would Apple randomly decide to go against policy and basically give me a free iPad?

Because Our God loves me in all of my stupidity and carelessness and decided to extend His grace to someone who clearly did not deserve it.

And beyond the replacement, the backup not only saved all of my app purchases but all of the data in them down to every last grade. Like nothing happened. God is good. Real good. Even in the little things. Even when we don't deserve it.


4 comments:

LB said...

Oh Carrie--what a great story. All of that totally sounded like something that would happen to me--I mean the breaking a 600.00 item that I did not have the money to replace and then racking my brain trying to figure out what to do about it. I love when God does stuff like that--it reminds me of how personal he is, and it reminds me of one of my favorite verses in the bible--"he remembers that we are dust." So glad for you that all of that worked out the way that it did!!

Laura said...

THANK YOU LORD

Shea said...

I so relate to this! That's amazing, Carrie! And, you are not alone about doing things absentmindedly!! Hope you have a wonderful relaxing weekend with that huge burden off your shoulders!

Caroline H said...

What a great story, Carrie! Arent those "surprises" that we oh-so-do-not-deserve the best?! He cares about the smallest of details!