Panic

One of the oddest things happened today just before my last exam for this semester.

We have a maid that's staying with us temporarily before she goes to her permanent employer and so this afternoon, she asks for permission to go get lunch. So of course I said ok and continued packing my bag to prepare for my exam in a little while.

When I reached the door, i discovered that the key was gone and it dawned on me that the maid had taken it with her so she could come back into the house later. Now, my family has devised a unique way of positioning the key in such a way that we would be able to gain access to it from outside, and hence I do not actually own a set of the keys to my padlock, esp since I left for manila and abdicated my ownership over that set of keys.

Now that the key has been removed, it means that i have NO means of getting OUT of the house. By this time, it was already 40mins to my exams. It will take me a good 15-20min for me to reach my school not including the waiting time for the cab. I was locked IN my house with my exams just minutes away.

Frantically, I called my dad, brother, sister and NO ONE picked up the phone. I ransacked the house for a possible extra keys but to no avail. FINALLY my bro and dad calls back but neither of them knew if we had a set of extra keys at home. 

Out of the kindness of his heart, my dad offers to come back home and unlock me out of my house and send me to school for my exam. Meanwhile, i get my bro to contact my sister who really should have been back home by now! Since there was nothing else i could do, i prayed to calm myself and then sat down and reviewed my notes. Shortly after the phone rings, my lil' sister calls me and tells me to check this secret place in my home that MIGHT have a spare key and lo and behold' there it was! It remains a puzzle to me how my sis, who's been living in this house for 5 years could know of this spare key when none of us residents of 21 years, had a clue about it.

Anyway, THANK GOD for the key and walked out just in time to meet my dad at the entrance of our place to head for my school. My exam starts at 2pm. I reached at 2.03pm. Not too bad! thank GOd also for Dolly and Kern who also prayed in faith for me that i'd be able to make it for my paper! you guys are super!

Anyhow, i am grateful for this spate of events, because i was so blessed by the love it allowed me to see around me. I was so blessed by Dolly's encouraging smses and her thinking of how to stall the exams for me (hahah), blessed by my dad's sacrifice of coming back all the way from work just to "free" me and send me to school, speeding almost dangerously to get me there on time (had to remind him our lives are more impt), blessed by my bro's help in contacting my sis, blessed by the genius-ness of my sis in knowing where the spare key is -- i am blessed by the solidarity of my family, physical and spiritual! :)

I remebered that after that initial brief moment of panic, i couldn't help but just think that there just had to be a good reason why God allowed it. Afterall, it was too random an event. I must say that my response to the situation surprised me too, because knowing me, my most common reaction would have been to panic all the way and blame someone (ie. the maid, pp for not putting spare keys etc.. i am that bad and irrational in times of panic) for my 'misfortune'. I love it that God helps us put things in perspective  when we turn to Him and reminds us what truly is important and helps us navigate through supposed "misfortune"s in our lives. Left to myself, i might have broken a bone trying to climb through the window, or hurt someone really badly with cutting words of irrational blame or done something else even worse and missed out on seeing the wonderful people i've been blessed around me.

So hurray, that exams are over and hurray that i conquered my panic-prone character today. Aye, one more battle down and more to come.