This morning I woke up feeling exhausted and my allergies were blaring. I DID NOT want to get out of bed, much less to walk for two hours in the hot sun handing out flyers. I was crabby, I didn’t have any patience, and I didn’t want to choose love. I prayed that God would change my stink attitude, but I didn’t really mean it. I was pretty ok with wallowing in my bad attitude.
When my squad mate, Emily, and I were handed a stack of flyers to hand out all I kept thinking was how much I would rather be in my bed asleep. Didn’t God understand that I was tired and had no desire to be walking the streets at 8:30 a.m. The morning went on, and I continued to choose my bad attitude instead of joy. Later, as we were walking back from the market I continually thought of how nice it was going to be to just lie in my bed with my headphones in and not have to deal with any of the people around me.
When we got back to the mission house we saw an old Romanian lady stopped at our doorstep. The lady couldn’t have weighed more than 90 pounds and was hunched over with a walking stick. She was carrying a sack of potatoes that she had bought at the market, which was about a mile away. She had stopped to take a break from her heavy load. We looked at each other wondering what we should do, wondering if she was a beggar or if she really needed some help. Emily asked her if she was walking back to her “casa” and gestured if she needed help. I took the sack of potatoes from her, and Emily and I started following the woman to her home.
The lady kept talking to us, but seeing as we can’t speak Romanian we didn’t understand a word she said. We followed the lady for about 25 minutes as she shuffled along back to her house. I kept thinking of how much effort it would have been for her to even walk to the market and back, much less with a 30 pound bag of potatoes. She had tan, weathered skin and I kept imagining how hard she had worked during her lifetime. Her grey hair peaked out of her headscarf and she wore tall, grey, cat socks with her sandals. Her eyes were sunken into her face, and when I looked into them I saw a woman of strength and perseverance.
We stopped as we neared her house and she grabbed my hand and kissed it. I leaned in and gave her a hug. She kissed me on the check and I could feel that her teeth were just a memory. We sat the bag of potatoes on her front step and hugged her goodbye, knowing we would probably never see her again. I have no idea what she thought of us two American girls. I’ll never know her story or her struggles, but God knows. God knows her heart. God speaks her language.
My heart is so full.
I serve a God so much bigger than my bad attitude. I serve a God that wants to know me and spend time with me even when I’m having a bad day and nothing in me wants to choose love. I serve a God that teaches me about his love through a simple sack of potatoes. I serve a God that comes alongside me and carries my burdens, my heavy sacks of potatoes and walks me faithfully back to His arms – my home.
I challenge you to look for God in the small things, to let Him show you who He is and His love for you in your everyday activities. Lookout for the people God places on your doorstep, even when you’re having a bad day.
“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me…Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” Matthew 25:35, 40
