This post is part PSA, part life lesson.
I am constantly learning new things. Since I generally love to learn, I love that about life…….most of the time. Learning new things can also be very hard at times and come with some degree of “blood, sweat and tears, as they say. The latest “new thing” that I learned also came with a LOT of frustration.
As the photo above suggests, this little tale has to do with batteries. I’m sure many of you will roll your eyes and puff up your egos when I tell you that I had no idea that the above said battery is what powers the all-important car key fob …..that handy little marvel that lets us in and out of our cars and, if so equipped, also facilitates remotely starting the car from inside the comfort of one’s home on a cold, blustery day. A little wonder of technology that I’ve only been blessed with for the last 4 years.
It was precisely this capability that I noticed was not working a couple weeks ago. Life has been very busy for me lately with a new job and I just kind of swept it “under the rug”. Something then triggered an old cobweb-covered memory of a time a few years ago when a former key fob totally “died” and I could not get in my car. This pulled the tripwire on my procrastination and I figured I better get on this before it happened again. Unfortunately a few years ago when this happened, I had not yet acquired this new little tidbit of knowledge and ended up being “relieved of” enough money to buy at least a dozen of these batteries by the dealership that I depend on for everything car related. In the words of my son-in-law, I “was had”. It’s ok….go ahead and laugh….I am …..along with being disgusted with their exploitation of my ignorance.
So, for you other ladies who, like me, might not be aware of this, when your car key fob starts showing signs of an impending ‘stroke’, you CAN fix this yourself! YouTube contains videos of any and all kinds of projects, step by step, including this one. In my case, however, my daughter and her husband showed me via FaceTime, bless their hearts. I will say, however, that my own experience was not quite the same slick performance that my son-in-law Wes so expertly detailed. In fact, mine ended up being more like a 3 Stooges routine; which is what many things I try do these days ends up looking like.
For starters, this size battery is apparently the most popular size of all, as it was the only one out of stock at the first place I tried…..of course. Luckily I found one at my second stop. The next issue was getting that sucker out of the package. I’m telling you, I cannot fathom why everything has to be packaged these days in iron-tight packaging that could withstand Armageddon. That combined with the arthritis that has been slowly stealing the strength and range of motion of my thumbs and hands in general has made so many packages almost impossible for me to open. This definitely fit into that category for me…even with scissors in hand! I’m not too proud to tell you that before this whole seemingly simple task was over, there were tears shed. It is no simple or easily acceptable thing to gradually lose the physical ability to do certain things you once did without a second thought. Aging is not for the faint of heart.
So, I finally got the package open and the battery out. I then got the fob itself opened up…no problem. The problems started when I tried to get the old battery out. It was held in with 4 seemingly unmovable prongs. This combined with my increasing lack of dexterity had me starting to get frustrated. It had looked like Wes just popped that booger out, I kept telling myself; but every time I tried that, the backing of what the battery was attached to kept pulling away from the framework of the whole thing. After several futile attempts, I finally got a flathead screwdriver and just pried it out of there. I popped the new one in much easier. However, when I then tried to close the whole fob up, I could hear my car alarm out back start to go off, plus, I noticed that one of the little “buttons” with the icons on it was now out of place in the framework. So, I took it all apart again , straightened the button and tried to squeeze it shut. Again with the car alarm. I frantically turned that off and pulled the gizmo apart again. Now ALL the buttons fell out of alignment in the framework. This was the point at which the frustration and tears ramped up. I finally got it all to work but only after wondering why on earth it had worked so nicely for Wes but not for me. The story of my life, I’m afraid. Alas, I still ended up feeling some degree of satisfaction that I was ultimately able to fix this problem and replace this battery myself without paying an arm and a leg, as before.
This episode reminded me that actually, we really shouldn’t even attempt to fix life’s problems — big or small — all by ourselves; that there is nothing “weak” about needing help with that, especially when that help comes from our Heavenly Father. That is precisely what He is there for and wants us to do……to go to Him for help with all our issues and concerns, no matter how trivial they may seem. He truly loves us so much and wants us to fully rely on HIM, not ourselves. That can be a tall order for some of us who have grown too independent. Sometimes He finds it necessary to “bring us to our knees” with difficulties so that we will come to a place where we realize our own abilities to fix things are nonexistent. We then have no choice but to rely on Him. As my body fails me more and more, I am learning a “new thing” that can be very hard……giving up the control to God and trusting Him to use HIS methods, which may include other people, to help me fix it. Self-sufficiency in today’s society is touted as something to be ‘revered’, but in the life of a true follower of Jesus, it is a fallacy. Jesus is the designer and director of our lives from start to finish and none of us are truly “self-sufficient”. We just need to accept that fact.
So sometimes we can replace life’s “batteries” ourselves, but more often than not, it’s so much better all the way around if we swallow our pride and stubbornness and let God use His methods to help us instead.