The noun, rumination, means a deep considered thought about something.

Last Sunday, my wife, Marilyn and I returned from a short trip out East. When we went to the parking garage at O’Hare Airport upon arriving back in Chicago, we were disappointed to find our car would not start. We are not mechanics and were confused that no noise would occur when turning the ignition yet the car lights and inside lights were as bright as ever. Some of the warning lights on the dashboard were also flashing at the same time, in a random order, leading me to believe we might be experiencing an electrical problem. 

My wife said it might be the battery. I thought it could be but did not understand how this was the cause when the exterior and interior car lights were operating as brightly as ever.

It was getting to be late in the afternoon, so I suggested we walk into the airport and rent a car, stating I would come back the next day to either have the car towed home or have it repaired locally. 

Once again, my wife suggested it might be the battery, so we went back into the airport to ask if the parking garage staff could jump start a dead battery. They could and did and we were on our way in less than 15 minutes, saving us car rental and /or towing costs. Thank you, dear God, and thank you, Marilyn.

As I thought about it, I felt that this is similar to one’s prayer life at times. We pray to God for an answer to some challenge and then wait for the answer we expect. At the same time, we may sense a “whispering” in our heart to do something else than what we prayed for and what we thought was the answer to our challenge. Then we find out what God whispered was a better answer than what we imagined. I guess sometimes a dead battery can teach us a lot about prayer

By Deacon Tom Gryzbek