Crazy Day...
I'm on my way to playgroup with the kids. Riding down the street, their favorite song (for now) playing and we're all singing at the top of our lungs. I look over to the sidewalk and there's a lady laying in the grass. FIrst I think to myself, she's sunbathing or something, but as I pull up to the stop sign, I check the rear view mirror and she hasn't moved. I sit for a little longer to see if she budges... nothing. I notice that she's breathing but it's a little weird. What would you do?
I looked around to see if there would be anyone else to help her... I was it. There was no one else around and I barely even saw her because she was in the grass and it was kinda tall. Anyway, I back up the car, roll the window down and yell out the window, "Are you ok?!" Nothing. I try on more time... nothing. I knew I was going to have to get out of the car and go over to see if she was ok. So I park the car (kids are still in the car) to check the girl out. I shake her, she rouses but doesn't wake completely. I try again, this time I ask her name. She mumbles something but I got no idea what she's saying. I ask does she live here and she says yes. Ok, where? "Which house is yours?" "That one," pointing off into NOWHERE! She lying in the grass between 2 houses, so I pick one and knock on the door and ring the bell. No answer. I go back to her, but this time a neighbor from across the street sees what's going on and asks if he can help. I tell him to call 911, and what happened.
20 minutes later, the neighbor and I are free to go after answering questions and just making sure that girl was taken care of. We never knew how long she was out there and she was a little shaky on details herself. As we were parting, the neighbor looks at me and says, "thank you for stopping."
I never really thought about it, but I guess I could have kept going. It would have been so easy for me to justify it in my mind too, like she was in front of her own house, she's fine (which we found out she did not even live in this city), or make some excuse as why it would have been fine for me to keep on going and not look back. What made me look back and double (triple) check? What moved me to take action... My mind kept telling me to move along, but it was like my training just kicked in and I was doing things without even thinking about it.
It was the Spirit. At just the right time I was driving down the street as this girl needed help. The neighbor said he was working on his house all morning and hadn't even seen her there! How is it that I saw her there just driving pass? It reminds me of a scripture, Hebrews 13:1-2 "Keep on loving each other as brothers. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have entertained angels without knowing it." I don't know what moved me to act how I did, but I'm glad I did. I'm glad to know that even sometimes when I don't want to do what I ought to do, I still do it. And not that I had a bad heart about helping the girl, but when you have the kids and you're running late it's easy to overlook a lot of things in hopes that someone else will take care of it. But this time my heart won out and I'm glad it did. Did I save her life, probably not (in the end we discovered that she'd had a few choice beverages), but that doesn't matter, what matters is that I stopped when I needed to... when it mattered. Keep that scripture in mind whenever you're tempted to "keep to your schedule".
I looked around to see if there would be anyone else to help her... I was it. There was no one else around and I barely even saw her because she was in the grass and it was kinda tall. Anyway, I back up the car, roll the window down and yell out the window, "Are you ok?!" Nothing. I try on more time... nothing. I knew I was going to have to get out of the car and go over to see if she was ok. So I park the car (kids are still in the car) to check the girl out. I shake her, she rouses but doesn't wake completely. I try again, this time I ask her name. She mumbles something but I got no idea what she's saying. I ask does she live here and she says yes. Ok, where? "Which house is yours?" "That one," pointing off into NOWHERE! She lying in the grass between 2 houses, so I pick one and knock on the door and ring the bell. No answer. I go back to her, but this time a neighbor from across the street sees what's going on and asks if he can help. I tell him to call 911, and what happened.
20 minutes later, the neighbor and I are free to go after answering questions and just making sure that girl was taken care of. We never knew how long she was out there and she was a little shaky on details herself. As we were parting, the neighbor looks at me and says, "thank you for stopping."
I never really thought about it, but I guess I could have kept going. It would have been so easy for me to justify it in my mind too, like she was in front of her own house, she's fine (which we found out she did not even live in this city), or make some excuse as why it would have been fine for me to keep on going and not look back. What made me look back and double (triple) check? What moved me to take action... My mind kept telling me to move along, but it was like my training just kicked in and I was doing things without even thinking about it.
It was the Spirit. At just the right time I was driving down the street as this girl needed help. The neighbor said he was working on his house all morning and hadn't even seen her there! How is it that I saw her there just driving pass? It reminds me of a scripture, Hebrews 13:1-2 "Keep on loving each other as brothers. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have entertained angels without knowing it." I don't know what moved me to act how I did, but I'm glad I did. I'm glad to know that even sometimes when I don't want to do what I ought to do, I still do it. And not that I had a bad heart about helping the girl, but when you have the kids and you're running late it's easy to overlook a lot of things in hopes that someone else will take care of it. But this time my heart won out and I'm glad it did. Did I save her life, probably not (in the end we discovered that she'd had a few choice beverages), but that doesn't matter, what matters is that I stopped when I needed to... when it mattered. Keep that scripture in mind whenever you're tempted to "keep to your schedule".
Comments