who takes charge
three schedules, one car, and no one in charge
6th Jan 2026
It snowed yesterday. Apparently my car doesn’t like the snow. It wasn’t a fun discovery.
On my drive to work I squeezed between a lamp post and a parked car and only barely made it. Then, turning out of the road, the car decided to slide towards the marker posts on the verge. We thank God I was able to pull it back, but my adrenaline ran high and I got flashbacks to my 2024 car crash. For a few seconds I was reminded how scary it feels to have no control.
20th Oct 2026
During uni I would always joke complain that God likes to talk to me through car problems. I used to say I needed to become a better listener, because it was an expensive way of capturing my attention.
I was reminded of this yesterday.
After the better part of two years dangling a cable out of my first-floor kitchen window to charge my car, I finally did the grown-up thing and installed a proper charging point. (And by “grown-up” I mean waiting for my dad to get an EV and having his charger installed at my place instead. Saving myself £1,000 feels pretty grown-up to me.) My sockets are grateful to no longer be at risk of melting… again…
The charging was much faster, but I couldn’t get the schedule working. On multiple days the charge didn’t quite reach the percentage I’d set. It took an hour-long call with customer service in the middle of the night, and a handful of restless nights checking the battery on my phone, to work out why.
There were three schedules. One run by my car, one by my charger and one by my energy provider. Each was deciding when the car should charge, and none of them agreed. Everyone was in charge, so no one was.
Well, except me. I’d set up all three.
So I switched off the schedules on the car and the charger and handed the whole thing to my energy provider, who knows when power is cheapest far better than I do.
In January I gripped the wheel and the snow still had the final say. In October the only way to get what I wanted was to hand over control. There’s a lesson in here somewhere.
I’ve noticed I’m happy to let go when I have no other option. When the ground, or the road, gets swept out from under me, surrender is easy because there’s nothing left to hold. It’s when things are working and I have a plan that I’m most tempted to run my own schedule alongside God’s. Then I wonder why I keep waking up short of where I wanted to be, forgetting I’m the one who set up the clash.
I’m gonna stop comparing the Almighty to my energy provider now. Both may provide power, but only one asks for a direct debit.
Still, maybe I’m becoming a better listener. If this was a dose of divine clarity, it’s the first car lesson that’s come with cheaper rates rather than a repair bill.