Missing the Blessing

There was a time in our lives when I seemed to be on a daily conversational dare I say?  con-spiritual level with God.  We'd been experiencing a lot of 'hands on' live action things with the Holy Spirit, and I may have even begun to think that we were God's little favourites.

One day in Japan I was driving down a narrow one-way street.  It was a quick 'short cut' from one major thoroughfare in our little city of a million people to another that only the locals knew about.

Now when I say "narrow" you have to remember this is Japan, and by narrow, we mean one way, with probably three feet on either side of the car.  All the little mom and pop shops opened out onto this street, leaving only a thin walking area.  If you put your arm out, it could be knocked off by the line of aggressively approaching short cutting cars.

Then I saw him.  He was walking as if he were a staggering drunk.  As I eased as much away from him as I dared, I heard in my mind a loud, "STOP and help that man!"  By now I was level with him, and glanced in the rearview mirror to see that he was not drunk, but crying and extremely distraught.

With equal vigour to the loud “Stop” I'd heard, I yelled back, "NO!". I countered with my excuse, 'This is not in my job description and besides, how could I stop with so many cars barrelling along behind me?"

As the reality of this man’s needs sunk in (as I continued driving), I prayed to the One I knew had asked me to stop. "Lord, I'm sorry but I just can't stop. Please help this man".

I won’t say what I heard was an audible Voice, but the Source was unmistakeable. And the answer to my prayer came quick and very clear.  

"Oh, I’ve always intended to help him, but you won't get to be part of the blessing."

OUCH.

What should we be doing that we just won't do?  How many times have we all excused ourselves from doing what we KNOW is the right thing, because He Who is asking us has picked something that's so far out of our comfort zone that we would never come to it naturally?

Our devotional book from Oswald Chambers has been talking a lot lately about not working FOR God but working WITH Him. And as my daughter says, I say too much,

‘Just sayin',

Till next time,

Marsha


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