Hello friends. This blog is particularly difficult for me to write – mainly because it’s not the most flattering story I’m about to tell you about myself.
After I got off work this morning at Wesley Owens Coffee, I drove to Goodwill to search for some skirts (yes, friends, I’ll be wearing skirts this year 🙂 and found a few. I got in my car and started driving back home – I had a little over half an hour before starting work at my other job, washing dishes. And I was determined to get to work on time.
But today, I think I was supposed to be late.
Right at the ramp to get back on to the interstate, there were two young girls hitchhiking. One had short black hair, wore a tanktop and tight jeans, and had tattoos all over her arms. The other had long brown hair and was smiling as she held her hand out in a thumbs-up sign. Cars were flying past them, and as I glanced at them, something pretty unexpected happened to me. I need to pick them up. Who knows what kind of jerk might pick them up and end up hurting them? I need to pick them up! But they’ll want to go somewhere far and I have to go to work! God, I can’t be late, I might lose my job! And while I felt torn and unsure, I drove past them.
I drove right past them.
It didn’t feel right. So I tried to convince myself that what I did, or didn’t do, was ok. “Who knows? Maybe they would’ve robbed me or killed me!” Then I shifted to something more realistic: “You’re not supposed to pick up hitchikers. Ever!” But still, no peace came over me. “I’ve got a job, a job that God gave me. Picking them up and driving them out somewhere and not going in to work or giving them longer notice? They’d fire me!”
By now, I was on the interstate and seriously contemplating turning around. I felt so convicted it hurt.
But…I didn’t turn around. I just headed home, got ready for work, and hoped I’d forget about it and hoped that the girls would be fine.
Maybe I did the “smart” thing. Maybe I was “wise” in my choice to not pick up hitchikers. Or…maybe God was asking me to sacrifice something that was important to me (my job) in order to reach out to someone in need. My reasoning for not helping someone out, even if they were strangers, was severely flawed: I put myself first. Maybe it was an opportunity to love someone and show them God’s kind of love – and I failed.
How often do we fail? We all know we miss opportunities every single day, because we’re too busy or have to be somewhere, or we’re running late, or_____________________. You fill it in. I don’t want to miss an opportunity. I don’t want to miss a chance. It’s by God’s grace that He gives me opportunities anyway and asks me to trust His control in the situation.
I think I should’ve been fired today. I think I should’ve gotten yelled at, at least. Instead, I chose to stay comfortable.
I want to adventure with God. I want Him to direct my decisions, big or small. I signed up for something big, and I’m just one, small, weak person if I walk through each day on my own strength – one very ineffective person. But if I do whatever is asked of me, the world will change. If we did all that God pushed us to do, the world would change. I am legitimately sorry that I didn’t stop for those girls today. And this is my pledge: That I will try my best, and try my hardest, to rely on God’s strength, so that in every decision I’ll have to make, I DO what He asks of me. No matter what. A little extreme? Maybe. Maybe not.
After all, the next eleven months? All 335 days of them?
They are NOT, in any way, about me.
Lord…here am I! Send me.
