A few weeks ago I was making my weekly run through the Family Dollar Store to pick up cleaning supplies and some odds and ends. When I got to the checkout, the one and only clerk on duty was several feet away from her register frantically talking on her cell phone. I could hear bits and pieces of the conversation…
“Well, I don’t know what you want me to do about it! I’m at work and the only one here, so I’m stuck. Clean her up and give her some Tylenol. I’ll take over when I get home. You’re her father; the least you can do is . . .”
Clearly frustrated, the young woman continued in that vein for several minutes. She saw me waiting but did not seem in any hurry to get off the phone and do her job. Part of me wanted to express my exasperation; part of me wanted to clear my throat and give her “the look.” Part of me wanted to be indignant about being made to wait when I was clearly ready to check out and leave.
Part of me.
But a still Voice seemed to whisper in my ear that this was not about me.
In fact, me needed to look at this situation through a different set of eyes and to hear with a different set of ears than my own.
What was I actually seeing?
I saw a harried young woman with swollen, red eyes clutching a cell phone in a tight white-knuckled grasp. What I heard was a tearful plea for help and a worried tone for a sick child whom this mother desperately wanted to be with but could not.
I took a deep breath and chose to rein in my growing frustration. My impatience was not going to help the situation, anyway. I chose to speak peace instead. When she got off the phone, I said, “It looks like you are having kind of a bad day.” She seemed surprised. I think she thought I was going to tear into her. She briefly told me her story and began scanning my items as she sniffed back tears.
Again I heard the Voice instructing me. I cleared my throat and did exactly what He said.
“May I pray for you?” I heard myself asking.
To my surprise, the woman acted as if this was a perfectly normal and expected request. No shock. No funny look. She just took my hand when I reached out for hers.
At that moment, another woman whom I had not even seen came running up. “WAIT! WAIT!” she cried. I thought she wanted to check out and did not want to be held up by our impromptu prayer. I started to apologize for not noticing her there, but she grabbed my hand in one of hers and the clerk’s hand in the other and said, “I want to be a part of this, too!” She wanted prayer for physical healing, she told us.
So there we stood – three complete strangers – in the checkout line of the Family Dollar Store, holding hands as I prayed for peace and healing and comfort over us all. Then it was over. We went our separate ways. I don’t know the outcome, but the Lord does.
Ready and Willing
How different that scene could have been. I could have expressed my agitation at being importuned. I could simply have taken my bathroom cleaner and paper towels and left. But instead, I listened to the Voice. What’s more, I obeyed It. And by doing so, perhaps I changed the course of two women’s lives. At least, I helped to provide a moment of peace in a really bad day.
How many times have you heard The Voice but dismissed it?
Have you ever resisted the Prompting by thinking it was just a silly impulse, or maybe you ignored the Spirit’s Call because you were too embarrassed to act upon it in a public place in front of strangers who might not understand or accept what you were trying to do?
God’s Spirit In Us
So many Scriptures remind us that, as God’s people, we are filled with the Spirit. What good does it do, if we ignore Him when He speaks to us? How can His will be fulfilled if we ignore Him when He prods us? Sadly, if we ignore the knocking at our door, eventually, He will just go away.
So, the next time you hear the Call pulling you out of your comfort zone, encouraging you to speak, pushing you to act – no matter how out of character that act might be – do not ignore it. You are the conduit of God’s Grace and Love. To oppose the Spirit is to thwart His will and to withhold that Grace and Love from those to whom He wants you to take it. And when we refuse to be His instrument, we run the risk of someday hearing Him say, “Depart from Me; I never knew you.”
