R'Eliemelech Biderman, related the following story that we can learn a number of lessons from.

A few years ago after Rosh Hashana there were many people waiting at a main bus stop in Bnei Brak for the bus #402 to take them back to Jerusalem. The bus stop was filled with families and many young children who were exhausted waiting to return home. There was no bus in sight and it was already 11:30pm, people were angry, annoyed and simply tired from waiting. Suddenly a bus approached them, but it was bus #318, which has a route to the completely opposite direction of Jerusalem. A few of the "macharim" decided they would flag down the empty bus and try to convince him to take them to Jerusalem. They stopped the bus and they began pleading with the bus driver to take them to Jerusalem. He explained to them that he is on route #318 and not #402 and isn't going to Jerusalem. They continued to plead with him until the bus driver's heart was overcome with sympathy and he agreed to take the people waiting to Jerusalem. Everyone huriddly boarded the bus. The bus driver changed the number on the bus from #318 to #402 and they all proceeded on the way to Jerusalem. The passengers didn't stop praising, blessing and thanking the bus driver the entire way. When he finally arrived in Jerusalem and dropped everyone off, they blessed the driver with a happy and healthy new year and left the bus. There was one passenger who was still on the bus waiting for the next stop. The passenger approached the driver and asked him how he wasn't afraid to change his route. This was something that could have caused him to lose his job and his income. He turned to the passenger and started laughing.  The bus driver explained to the passenger that when the bus company realized there was a problem and a bunch of people were stuck for hours, they called in for a bus to dispatch immediately. None of the drivers were willing to go as they all knew as soon as they boarded the passengers they would all start yelling and screaming at the driver (even though it wasn't his fault there was such a delay). He volunteered to go pick everyone up but instead of putting up #402 the correct route he changed and put up #318. This way everyone would think he wasn't supposed to pick them up at all and when he would be "convinced" to "help" them he would "change" his route to #402. Instead of receiving screams and shouts he would receive blessings.

Many times a person begins to complain about their situation. They feel things aren't fair, they haven't gone the way they want etc. Instead of praising G-d and Thanking for what they have, they fail to recognize the good. In order to awaken them to the good, something goes wrong just so a person can pray to have things turn around and then praise G-d for all they have. If they would praise G-d from the start they could have saved themselves from all the difficulty.

A person can also learn that all of the effort they put in and convince themselves that they have accomplished in reality was part of the plan to begin with. The "macharim" thought they convinced the bus driver and saved the day but little did they know that in truth they didn't do anything.

Shabbat Shalom,

Heath