The Hertz 800 emergency number fell out of my purse four weeks late. I needed it back in Crescent City CA where my rental car refused to start. I had an almost new Volkswagen Jetta that should have been the perfect car for my trip. But from the beginning the steering column locked which made it difficult to turn the key.

On my third day of vacation, I drove to a Safeway store to pick up a couple of items, leaving all my rental car information at the hotel. In the store parking lot, I discovered the steering column was locked tight on the car. No matter how much I jiggled the steering wheel or the key, I simply could not get the key to turn over.

So there I was in the Safeway Customer Service counter, calling Volkswagen – the only number I did have, after learning the local Hertz Rental agency was closed.  They offered to help me out if I would just stay on the phone, go to my car and try a few things. But, that would mean my Virgin Mobile phone worked in Crescent City CA, which it did not. Given the problem, their next solution would be to tow the car one hundred and ten miles. Which might have worked, if I had been traveling that way. I still had Triple A though.  They gave me the Hertz 800 number and promised to have someone there within ninety minutes.

That night, the  the rental car company  was staffed by a kind and helpful man. He told me how to unlock the steering column, by pressing the brake to the floorboard. And wonders of wonders, it worked. That would be two hours after I discovered I couldn’t turn the key in my beautiful blue Jetta. A few weeks after I got home, my purse tipped over. Cards spilled out of pockets. One of them was a Triple A card with the Hertz Rental Car emergency 800 number.

Sometimes, the answers we are looking for are already within our grasp. We may simply need to dig a little deeper inside ourselves, or spend time with a trusted friend. The answers may surprise us as we journal about our concerns and our fears. A solution might appear in our reading of scripture or in the words of a familiar song. It may simply be that we are at a place where we need to take those first steps we already know we need to take.

God has as many ways of guiding us as there are people on this earth. Look around today. Where have you felt God nudging you to explore, risk or dare? Who in your life are you feeling a need to reach out to? What problems are burdening your heart and who have you thought of trusting them with? God leads a single step at a time. Is it time for you to take that step in front of you?

Even though I didn’t find the card the day I needed it, I was blessed by a young woman at the customer service desk at the Safeway store who showed extreme patience with me . . . while I used her phone for most of two hours. The Triple A service truck arrived in time to show the driver that I’d figured the problem out.  Turning the car off for a moment, once more, the steering column locked solid. I needed the Triple A driver to get it started that time. In the morning I traded the Jetta for a more seasoned Honda. The next thousand miles went without a hitch.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not rely on your own insight.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.”
Proverbs 3:5-6

*Originally posted as “Sometimes, the Answers We Need are Already Within Our Grasp” on October 10, 2016