Today I met Christ.
No, I didn’t become a Christian today, I’ve actually been a Christian
since I was a little girl, but today I met someone whose life was so centered
on Christ that it showed through and I saw Christ in him. Today wasn’t going so well. It was just one of those days where I was
feeling particularly lonely and incompetent for no good reason. I was exhausted after roofing for the past
few days, and to add to all of that I ran over a nail yesterday, got a flat tire,
and I had to go get that tire patched on my afternoon off.
When I entered the tire shop, the man at the desk helped me
out, and after getting my information and sending my car into the shop to be
looked at, he asked me about Service Over Self, the urban home repair camp that
I’m working at this summer. I was still
wearing my staff shirt and was still caked in dirt from the day’s work, so he
was naturally a little curious what I was doing. After I told him a little bit about SOS, he
started telling me about his church. He
is a pastor at a church not too far away, and he was telling me of this vision
that he had to build a place where teens can come hang out as an alternative to
spending time getting into trouble, where prostitutes can come to be safe, and
for so many other people to be shown love.
We talked for probably fifteen minutes, sharing how God had worked in
each of our lives and how God brought us to where we were today. At this point, one of the guys who worked in
the shop came out front and informed me that because the nail had punctured my
tire in the perfectly wrong place, he couldn’t make a patch that would last for
more than a week. I turned around to
look at the wall full of tires behind me, and as I looked at the prices on the
tires, I tried not to cry, but when I realized that what I thought was going to
be a $30 tire patch would actually be a new $130 tire, I felt tears of
frustration welling up in my eyes. The
kind man asked me to come back over to the counter, and when he saw the tears,
he asked me if buying a new tire was going to be a problem for me. I told him that it would be fine, but what he
did next was completely unexpected. He
reached into his pocket, pulled out some money, and told me, “I’m going to pay
for half your tire.” I tried to tell him
that it was fine and that I could pay for the tire, but he insisted. My eyes widened in surprise and the tears of
frustration turned into tears of joy and complete surprise. It was the kindest, most unexpected thing
that someone has ever done for me.
I expressed my
thankfulness and my surprise that a complete stranger would do something so
kind, he told me something so profound.
He told me, “Hey, if I can live my life in such a way that I can bless
other people and share God’s love that way, I think that’s all I really need in
life.” He spent the next half hour or so
talking with me and my friend who had come with me, sharing his testimony,
encouraging us, and sharing Scripture with us.
Today, God truly blessed me by showing me one of His children living out
the gospel in such a clear way by showing
so much kindness to me, a complete stranger. God truly sends blessings in the most
unforeseen ways in the most random place.
We serve a great and powerful God who knows just when we need
encouragement. I continue to stand
amazed at His provision every day.
