God talking to me

Part of the reason that I want to continue to do this little thing called blogging is that it is a way for me to record stories so that my kids (and other family/friends/whoever) can know some of the experiences I've had, thoughts I've thought, things I'm going through, and convictions I hold.

Tonight's story happened to me about 4 months ago - give or take a couple weeks. I was driving to work on a frosty morning and noticed a guy on the side of the road with a bike and a flat tire. He was obviously riding his bike into work because he had his pack of business stuff there with him as he looked from side to side. I drove past and felt the nudge (a gentle way of saying that I felt God ask me) to go back and see if he needed to call someone or needed a ride or whatever. I got all the way to work, pulled into a parking spot, and had a little conversation in my head. "Somebody else probably already stopped." "What a cool story this could make at morning devotions about how I helped somebody on the side of the road." "He's probably already gone." And on and on and on....

So I decided to turn the car around, go back down the road, and see if the guy was still there. He was. I pulled up and asked him if everything was ok and if he needed to call someone or needed a ride. He assured me that he had called his wife and that she was on her way. We exchanged some small talk and I was on my way.

Driving back to the office I had another type of conversation. "Why would You nudge me so much if the guy didn't need any help?" We often hear stories about some guy hearing God say to him, "Bring groceries to this house and it just so happens that the house is home to a family who doesn't have the money that month to buy groceries." Not so in my case. God said to me - "Go see if that guy needs help." He didn't. The more I thought and prayed about that nudging the more I heard God say to me - "What makes you think I had you go to help him? Maybe he was helping you." You see, at that time God was showing me the importance of obedience to him - no matter what was asked of me. The lesson for me was not in what I could "do" for God through helping this other guy, but God asking me to do something and simply doing it because I love Him and obedience is how I show that love for Him.

Who knew flat tires could be a way for God to speak to someone?