Reading Sarah Markley’s blog about an embarrassing moment with a vehicle reminded me of one ‘o’ my own.
So… I was in a big hurry, filling up my car with gas while being a few minutes late for my forty-five minute commute to Bible School. Two minutes after peeling away from the station I remembered that I’d left my gas cap jammed in the nozzle (to keep it pumping so I don’t have to stand there and hold it the whole time).
Oops.
So I turn my car around, now REAALLY late… and book it back to the gas station. I pull up to the spot at the pump where I’d just been to see a bizarre looking lady standing perfectly rigid, eyes bugged wildly out of her head, breathing hard, soaking wet while holding the pump nozzle. Weird.
My gas cap is sitting on the roof of her car. She is standing speechless as I stride up to the car, snatch my gas cap, thank her, screw the cap back in, and begin driving away. The smell of gas is really strong for some reason. Huh.
And then it hits me: She’s soaking wet with gasoline… which is because I had my gas cap wedged into the nozzle. When she flipped the switch she hadn’t put it into her car yet. She didn’t know it was already pinned full throttle. The gas had geysered like a hose in a water fight, soaking her to the bone. And then I had simply walked up to her, snatched my gas cap, said “thank-you very much,” and driven off like nothing was the matter. Luckily it took her about fifteen seconds more than I took to figure out what actually happened. I was long gone.
Yes, I drove off. Yes, even when I realized what I had done (what, YOU’D go back?) And yes, I laughed. Hard, in fact. The look on her face was priceless.
God still loves me. I asked.
I do, however, feel a twinge of guilt to this very day.
But only a twinge.