"Check Engine:" Pay Attention to the Small Problem Before It Becomes a Big One

It has been WAY too long since my last blog, I have done a worse job at keeping up with this than I thought I would, which is saying much because my expectations weren't that high...And I have some earlier blogs that I started a while back that I would love to go back and finish one of these days, but for right now, I would like to share some reflections on recent events, so here it goes...
Tonight, in my Spiritual Formations class, we watched this video on attention, and as I was watching this, I began to truly ponder the concept of paying attention and along with that, I pondered all the things that we miss by not paying attention. In this video, they mentioned a quote that I believe was from Ghandi that says that God is always speaking, we just don't know how to listen and as I pondered this in conjunction with recent events, I realized that our lack of attention causes us to miss out on a lot and can cause a small problem to become a bigger one...
For example, for months, the "Check Engine" light on my car had been randomly been popping on and off, and since there really didn't seem to be anything wrong with my car and the appearance of the light seemed to be completely random, I chose to temporarily ignore the problem and tuck it away in my mind as something to have checked out later. As the light continued to come on and off with no real consistency, it was decided that some random sensor might be off on my car and I should get it looked at, but that there was no immediate concern, and so I went on, not paying much attention to this check engine light, then this past Thursday happened...
I was driving to work and I stopped at an intersection and when the light turned green, I hit the gas, expecting my car to move forward, and well, it didn't.... I turned it off and restarted the engine, and still nothing. In complete panic about the fact that my car had chosen not to move, and I was smack dab in the middle of an intersection, I did what any Daddy's girl would do, I called my Dad, who wisely told me to call the police. After getting on the phone with the 911 operator and continual efforts to get my car running (and after a few honks and several angry looks from other drivers) I was able to get my car running enough for me to get it pulled into an shopping center.
To make an incredibly long story short, what ended up being wrong with my car? Well, the crank sensor had gone bad. So, my initial assumption that a sensor was off in my engine was correct, but my decision to ignore or not pay attention to the "check engine" light caused the unneeded stress of having my car die on me in the middle of an intersection, followed by the stress of finding a ride to work and what not and the overall inconvenience of being without a car for a short period of time. Now, God in his infinite grace, did provide for me throughout this situation: first, in the help of friends who came to lend me a car, next in the form of my Dad coming to look at my car and then to get it to the car dealership to get it checked out, and lastly in the form of the car dealership that fit my car into their jammed schedule and got it back to me the next day. However, one important lesson I take from all of this, and one that I hope anyone reading this takes from it, is the importance of paying attention....Had I paid attention to the "check engine" light, I could have avoided this whole mess and stress... So. may I always give due attention to the small problems before they become big ones, but more importantly, may I live everyday paying careful attention to everything happening around me, for we never know when God will speak to us in his still, quiet voice, and if we do not listen and pay attention, he may just need to shout it out at us later....So, let us all take notice of the small, quiet voice of God speaking to us on a regular basis and hopefully avoid the stress of having him shout at us later...
Well, that's all for now, more later and hopefully there won't be as long as a gap between this one and my next one....