Tires & Taxes & Bears, Oh My!

Friday, April 20, 2007

So much to be thankful for. New tires, done taxes, new brakes. God is Good.

Tax time has just passed us again. It is often a frustrating and anxious time. This year, I also realized I needed work done on my car.

Once again, I procrastinated doing my taxes, but did get them done in one afternoon online, about a week before they were due. So there's that. For some reason, I had convinced myself that I was going to have to pay quite a bit in taxes this year, so I saved up a cushion of funds for the just-in-case scenario.

As it turned out, I got back $94 on my Federal and owed $52 on my State. I told the Feds to apply my refund to next year's taxes, had the State deduct from my account, and paid for my online use of TurboTax. So it ended up being sort of a wash. Which, for me, is rather rare.

So here I was, with my cushion of money saved up and it just felt like I had a head-start on another savings project, which was to have a buffer because of some job changes I'm experiencing. (I wrote a blog on that, but haven't posted it yet. Procrastination is a vicious little demon, ain't he?)

For quite some time, my front tires have been worn and they were on my list. Then my brake light kept coming on. That could have simply meant that my brake fluid was low (which it was) but my brakes have felt rather soft and it had been quite some time since I last replaced them. So, with money in the bank for once, I went ahead and took care of both.

And it really speaks to me of God's providence. I won't complain about how much work my car needed, because I'm thankful to have a car, and that it continues to run. I expect to have to put more money into it in the near future, because the car is over 6 years old and has almost 140k miles on it. I'm going to drive this vehicle into the ground, and I figure that will cost some. Yet, not only were these repairs necessary for extending the life of the car and its safety in driving, but they were great examples of the timing of embracing faith.

I saved money, didn't need it for that, and something else came up and I had the money. Maybe that happens to other people often, and maybe it's new to me because in the past I would have always just used my credit card. Now, with my car paid off, I consider that mainly for minor financial procrastination and emergency use. So I've been trusting more in the Lord for my provisions...and this was an example of that. It could have been an overwhelming amount to spend in the course of a week, but it wasn't.