A Flat Tire

"We're going to have to stop," I said.

"What's going on?"  My wife, Elaine, asked me.

"We've got a tire that's going flat," I said.  We were driving into the town of Loogootee, coming home from church, and I was looking everywhere for a sign that said "Air."  At the least, maybe we could make it home if I filled it up with air.  I didn't see anything and finally pulled into a gas station that didn't have an air compressor to change the tire.

It was ninety-two degrees in the shade with high humidity.  As I stepped out of the van in my white shirt and dress slacks, I could feel the perspiration beading up on my forehead.

I looked at the tire.  It was really flat.  Oh, well...

I tugged the jack out of the back of the van and began to jack it up.  I moved over to try to loosen the lug nuts and found that the wrench wouldn't fit over the lug nut's head.  I pushed on it and kicked, to no avail.

A man walked out of the convenience store.  "Can I help?"  He asked me.

"I can't get the lug nuts off, so I can get my spare tire on,"  I said.

The man fiddled with the wrench and then nodded.  "Won't fit,"  he grunted.  "Let me see what I've got."

He returned in a minute or two with his own wrench.  It was a tight fit, but he managed to get it over the nuts and began to loosen them.

"You sure picked a warm day to have a flat tire," he said.

In five or six minutes, we had the tire changed.  "Thank you so much,"  I said.  "You were just what we needed.  God bless you!"

The man's eyes crinkled just a little as he started to walk away.  "I hope the rest of your day goes a little better," he said and jumped in his 15 year old F150 and drove away.

I am glad for this episode.  I am not glad because I enjoy having flat tires on ninety-two degree days.  I am glad because it gives me hope.

It is easy to believe that in this dark world, all kindness has left humanity.  It is easy to believe that most people walk through life focused on themselves (and their phones), unable to see or care about the needs of others.

Maybe that is true in some places, but there are still men who will stop and help a stranger change a tire on his mini van when it is really, really hot out.

The man who helped me would probably laugh and say it wasn't a big deal.  It is just the sort of thing that anyone would do.

He might call it "no big deal," but I call it "love."

And that's exactly what this world needs.