Sister, Are You Performing in a Circus?

Despite its intermittent coughing especially durng rainy days, my faithful little Daihatsu Cuore served me well for one whole year, after which I had no alternative but to scrap the car. My friend, Carrie, recommended me to buy her employer's car as he hardly drove and the mileage for the 5 year old car was quite low. It was an automatic, apple green Toyota Carina. Gosh, at 1600 cc, it was twice the size of my little Cuore. It provided more space to ferry my two pet dogs around Singapore. Kamlette, my mixed Golden Retriever, loved to stick her head out to feel the breeze as the car sped along. On the other hand, my Rough Collie, Kambobo, was contented to spread himself comfortably on the back seat of the car.

One Saturday afternoon, I was rushing to show a client a property. As I was driving along Braddel Road, I began to feel quite uneasy, and hence decided to pray as the car sped along in the heavy afternoon traffic. Just as I reached the trafffic junction between Braddel and Bishan Road, the light turned red and I applied the brake. To my shock, the car spun one round and I shouted out, "Oh God, my doggies have not eaten their dinner yet!" The car came to a halt at another three quarter turn. Fortunately, for some strange reason, there was no vehicle behind or in the next three lanes. Only a van was on the 4th lane, and the driver wound down his window and hollered, "Sister, are you performing in a circus? You're so lucky!" He grinned. I smiled back sheepishly, a little shaken. I was grateful that I had not hit any vehicle or the tree along the road divider! I reversed my car back and brought it to the right position.

When I brought my car to the mechanic and shared with him about my close shave with an accident, he immediately checked the wheels. He was shocked to find that the tyres of the car were too smooth for safe driving. I never knew that car tyres must be rotated or changed after every 5,000 km.! I thought one could carry on driving until the car is scrapped after ten years!

My university buddy, Richard Tam, recently wrote to me, "I noticed that you had several accounts where you were dealing with mechanical things which were particularly obnoxious, such as an eccentric, aged car driving through water. But you came through with flying colors where many a mechanically-adroit person in his right mind wouldn't have dared to tread. You attributed your success to your prayers being answered by the Almightly in whom you place your faith. There's the saying: "God helps those who help themselves". In your case, Sister, it sounds more like "God helps those who can't help themselves and ask for help". Allelujah!"

What an apt conclusion, Richard! In Penang, we often say in our Hokkien dialect,
"Kiang lang chiak gong lang; gong lang chiak Thi Kong". Direct English translation is "The clever people eat up stupid people; the stupid people eat up God". The Mandarin equivalent is "Sha ren yiu sha fu" Direct English translation is stupid people have stupid luck. I am sure Forrest Gump will definitely agree with the above statements.

I guess for people who are very clever, the brains often stand in the way of taking those little steps towards having a mustard seed of faith.

Gan Chau :-)