I think right now I know a little bit about how the Grinch felt with all the noise that he didn't understand. Today we are getting our ducts (not to be confused with ducks) cleaned. And the noise is horrendous.
Here I sit with my granddaughter that I am supposed to be teaching and we can't even hear each other for all the noise. I knew I was in trouble when I saw this huge machine with an even bigger hose and another smaller machine on top of that. They went up in the attic to "clean up".
For about the first 15 minutes a dust storm was coming into my house from all the vents. It was so bad that we almost had to break out the flashlights, on low beam of course, to find each other. At this point one of the workmen calls down that it will get better "in a minute" (I want whatever timepiece this young man was using because somehow he was getting more that 24 hours in a day.).
After the "dust storm" the weather did begin to clear and all that was left was the insufferable noise of a metal brush rotating in a metal duct with the world's largest vacuum cleaner roaring with suction right above my head. I have to admit, the worst part of the whole thing was the interruption of my busy schedule.
I am sometimes that way with God. He will tell me, "that lady over there needs someone to talk to," or "that person really needs something to eat," and I whine about how busy I am.
But God will shame you into doing what He tells you if He has to. I was stopping by a fast food restaurant to get myself some dinner when a homeless man approached me and told me he needed $.85 to get something to eat. The amount struck me as a little odd since all the homeless people I knew would ask for a dollar or five dollars, but I was in a hurry as well as a little afraid of him because it was a bad part of town, so I told him the truth...I didn't have $.85 and entered the restaurant. I ordered what I wanted to eat to go because I had a pile of papers to grade that night sitting in my car. The cashier told me the total and I paid her in cash (this was before debit cards were accepted in fast food restaurants). She gave me my change and by now I bet you can guess how much it was. Exactly $.85.
I felt so ashamed of myself for not inviting the man to come in and have dinner with me. I felt ashamed of not being willing to give up that small amount of money to one of God's children.
I thanked the cashier quickly and practically ran out of the place to find the old man. He was almost to the sidewalk and I didn't know his name, so I shouted, "Hey, buddy!" How he heard me over the traffic or knew I was talking to him is still a mystery to me. But he did and turned around to find this crazy lady running down to him holding $.85 in her hand. I asked him if he still needed $.85 and he said, a little fearful of this wild-eyed woman running in heels with one hand outstretched , "Yes, ma'am." (He showed more respect to me than I did to him :( ).
I gave him the $.85 and he went straight in and bought something to eat while I stood there telling God how sorry I was that I ignored him. I would like to tell you I went back in and had dinner with him, but once he got his hamburger, he was gone and I couldn't find him.
It's a lesson I have never forgotten. Now I work very hard to realize that there are no chance meetings, only Divine appointments. If I am teaching a class and only one student shows up, it is always because that student needed some one-on-one time or wanted to talk about something that was private. While I could be grumbling about the lack of commitment of the other class members and call off class, I just can't because I know God orchestrates where we are and who we are with every hour of every day.
When you are having a busy day and you feel God nudging you to go out of your way to do something for him, don't say, "Not now, I don't have time." Don't make God shame you into doing His will because you know he could just get a rock to do it. I can tell you ignoring God is painful, like the noise of the duct cleaning. But just like the cleaning, doing what He asks is well worth it to be able to breath the sweet clean air of obedience. I try to keep all my Divine appointments these days. All because of a haggard old homeless man...or was he an angel sent to teach me? I'll never know this side of heaven.
No comments:
Post a Comment