Wow, where did this week go! Sorry for the non-posting… between feeling a little under the weather with a cold Monday and Tuesday, juggling some writing, Wives of Faith things and studying for that all important Friday spelling test with my six-year old, it’s been busy to say the least. But I wanted to share with you something that happened last night and hopefully leave you with an encouraging word and a bit of a challenge to start the weekend.
Last night my husband came home not feeling so well. We were both tired and so we decided that we’d go grab dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant not too far from our house. The three of us had filled our plates from the buffet and were seated at our table when a woman and her little boy were seated at the table behind us. She was of a slight build, wearing a red sweater and her hair was kind of long and straggly. As she and her son who was probably about our son’s age passed us, a thought came very distinctly to my mind. “You need to pay for her meal tonight.”
What?
I knew it was God speaking to me and I have to be honest; I cringed inside. That was a ridiculous idea – I didn’t know this woman, she didn’t know me, and knowing the limited English vocabulary of the restaurant staff, I wasn’t even sure they would understand if I tried to explain what I wanted to do. I also wasn’t sure my husband would understand.
And the money. We aren’t made of it. We’ve still been in transition mode from having a full-time Navy check back to my husband’s job at a non-profit Christian radio station and as a writer/author, it’s usually feast or famine when it comes to work and when you do have it you hold on to it. Was paying for a complete stranger’s meal really being good stewards for our family?
So, there I sat, trying to enjoy my fried rice and sesame chicken, rationalizing that maybe it was the wontons talking instead of the Holy Spirit and all the while God was tapping me on the shoulder. You need to pay for her meal.
When the woman came back with her little boy’s plate and left to go back and get hers, I took a breath, swallowed hard and leaned over to Cliff.
“I think we’re supposed to pay for that lady’s meal behind us. I know it sounds crazy, but I had this thought as soon as she walked by us and I think we’re supposed to pay for her meal tonight.”
His eyes got wide and he looked at me and then looked at the little boy behind us. I’m sure he was thinking the same things I had just thought.
“OK. Sure, we can do it,” he said. I love my husband.
Now there was no turning back. I tried to find a waitress so I could ask to make sure to get the woman’s bill before it was given to her; after explaining in whispers what I wanted to do, she smiled and said “O-K.” I wasn’t sure if she understood or not. She brought us our bill in a few minutes but it was just ours. She hadn’t understood. This could have been my out. She didn’t bring me the second bill so maybe I’d misunderstood. Maybe I hadn’t understood God. Or, maybe I just needed to figure out another way to overcome the language barrier and try a little harder! There I went, rationalizing again.
So up again I stood and went to the cashier’s area and found the one woman I thought spoke the most English. This time she understood and spoke to the other waitress in Chinese to go get the woman’s bill and she added it to ours. I handed her my debit card, she rang it up and we were out of there with the understanding that the waitress would let the woman know that she and her son’s meal had been paid for but she wouldn’t tell her who had paid for it. Mission accomplished.
I wish I could tell you that I bounded out of there with a huge smile on my face, feeling fantastic and ready to buy somebody else’s meal, but it didn’t really happen that way. We didn’t hide in the bushes looking through the window waiting to see her reaction; we just drove home. But I drove home feeling a sense of obedience; that God had asked me to do something and I had done it even though I didn’t have a clue of the reasons or the situation. This woman could have been a single mom on a tight budget, or maybe going through a divorce, or maybe her husband was working three jobs and she was tired of eating by herself at home. Or maybe, she was just out for dinner with her son. I don’t know her circumstances or what it may have meant to her to hear the words “Someone else paid for you.” I just know we were supposed to do it.
There have been other times where I’ve heard God’s voice and didn’t act, didn’t listen, didn’t follow through. The time a few years ago I felt like He’d told me to make sure to go to church one Wednesday night because He had a special message He wanted me to hear but I stayed home instead and the next day my husband was laid off from his job. When I finally told my husband what I’d done, or rather not done, he had said with a little smile, “it might have been nice to hear what God wanted to tell us…” There have been times when I’ve had the thought that I was supposed to go say something to someone, usually a stranger, maybe offer an encouraging word or make myself available to just listen and I’ve walked right past that person, squelching the thought and rationalizing all the way home.
How many opportunities do we miss to be God’s hands and feet because we hear His voice but don’t listen? We get those thoughts but we throw them out with our next breath. We hear but we don’t follow through? How many times do we say, “OK God, I’m going to do what You ask and trust that You’ll bless it for whatever Your purpose is”?
I’m really enjoying this book by John Ortberg, If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Step out of the Boat. The chapter I’m reading right now talks all about fear and risk. It is risky to follow Christ. Because He doesn’t ask us to sit in the boat. He asks us to take a step of faith and come walk on the water with Him! Whether it’s a big thing like starting a ministry or a new career, or something small like paying for someone’s meal or saying hello to someone you might not usually talk to.
I just wanted to share this experience with you because I’m pretty sure that there are many of you reading this who need to be challenged to step out of the boat. To take a risk for God. To be obedient to what He’s asking you to do. You may never see the benefits or the results of your obedience, but you can be sure that God does. And others will see Him through you, or at least through your actions of obedience.
A couple of things that sort of confirmed what happened last night… when the waitress brought us our cookies at the end of the meal, only one of the three cookies had a slip in it. It read “you will be a comfort to others.” And when we were getting in the car, Cliff said, “I heard that woman say her son’s name. It was Caleb.” The same name as our son.
Obedience is a powerful thing.