I Can Do Hard Things

I ran a 100-mile race. I ran the Boston marathon and finished in the top 3%. I went through a difficult divorce. I am a parent of two beautiful boys, one of which is nonverbal autistic. I have gender dysphoria. I do all this hard stuff and yet, I believed anybody could all of it and more. What makes me so special? The 100 miler wasn't a huge monumental task but rather, it was just a bit of fun (and craziness some think). So when a friend posted the picture above and this talk on Facebook, it got me thinking. It got me believing in myself.

I have a Honda Fit. I love the car. I love it so much that I slept in it for a few months after the divorce while I was trying to get back on my feet. I've had it for 2 1/2 years. Previously I had a small Toyota that consistently got 43 miles per gallon and never needed work done on it except preventative maintenance that I performed myself. The Fit wasn't quite as economical and has had a little trouble ever since I got it. I first noticed that it would stall when I would put it into neutral after being in fifth gear while the car was still warming up or soon after the cold-engine light had gone off. Not worried too much about it, I did a little research but couldn't figure out what was wrong. The car ran well otherwise and got almost 40 miles per gallon. But over the last year the mpg has decreased even more and the stalling got worse. It would stall even if the car had been sufficiently warm and been running for a while. So I googled some more, did more research. I was pretty sure that the engine valves needed adjusting. Financially, we couldn't afford to have a mechanic do it. So I did the next logical thing, I looked for youtube videos. None were on my particular car, but were very helpful. I found diagrams for my car and studied them. Then after a few weeks of intense research and a search for courage, I bought those gap feelers and proceeded to dismantle the engine to get to the valves.

Up until then, my experience with cars had been oil changes, spark plug replacements, brake jobs, and checking other fluids. I had never considered attempting something so advanced and was scared to do so. But after only a couple hours, I had the valve clearances corrected and the engine all back together. And taking it for a test drive, it didn't stall as I coasted to the light. The RPMs didn't even drop down but remained steady.

In the end, something I thought would be super hard wasn't really that difficult. And I learned that I CAN do HARD things. Before my 100-mile race, I was nervous. I had a huge task ahead of me, but I never doubted I'd be able to finish. I took it one step at a time. I disassembled the engine manifold and reassembled everything one step, one screw at a time. I know that as we "labour and are heavy laden" and take his yoke upon us by following him and learning of him we will accomplish hard things, great things, even if it is one step at a time. (Matthew 11:28-30)