Divine Appointments

So, in the interest of a new cd about to release, and a music video, as well as a book I am very passionate about, I mustered all I had within me, which wasn't much after 10 loads of laundry, cleaning house, grumpy children, all because of our week of total freedom from all of that at the beach, and then an eight hour drive home, and took myself, as well as Rog, to a supposed open mike at a Tapas Bar in East Cobb, Georgia.  My purpose was to "sus" out the open mike, and see if they would accept the songs I would sing here, but, that was my purpose;  God had a different one.

The open mike was no longer, a memory of last year because of lack of support, but we soldiered on and felt we would sit at the bar, the most interesting place to sit if you are a people person, order something small, and go home.  But, as God would have it, I was never there for the open mike, I was there for the "open heart".  The bar tender, as Rog noticed, had no sense of humor, which of course made us even more idiotic than we really are, proving the statement she made later that Monday was the beginning of her week-end.  Now I know why she was so grumpy.  But, still we held in, ordered, took the usual umpteen dozen phone calls from home, mainly from the Aspergers' kid about who was telling on her, just to have a few minutes on our own, even with interjected conversation with the cell phone.

I have just discovered I am a little gluten intolerant, so I ordered from the GF menu thinking I am getting something delicious.  Rog orders something I know is delicious.  Mine comes, and I am thinking that they are lying on the menu, but, I have too many manners to complain, so I start a conversation with the woman who is sitting almost next to me at the bar.  If you can imagine a corner, well I was on one side of the corner, and she was on the other.  I am not sure, mainly because how fast this conversation progressed, as to how we got to the "God" subject so quickly.  But, suddenly, I am telling her where we go to church, and what a wonderful church this is in all locations, and then in the midst of ministering to her about an accident with her niece, a marriage that is not on solid ground, and that both her husband and herself are musically inclined, we find common ground, and she realizes that "God" in in the midst of us, in a Tapas Bar.

Well, Jesus never did hang out with the right people, or talk the excepted talk, walk in the ways that he was supposed to, and now, after 2000 odd years we all go, yeah, we get that, but, curses on the people called to do close to the same thing in our day and time.  Why is it that we cannot sit in the pew, with the people of God, and receive the message, take it to our hears, and then, God forbid, take it to a bar, either a Tapas bar, or any other for than matter, but proclaim the gospel to the very person who is in dilemma, no matter where they are, or what their circumstance.  It is the road I walk, somewhat tenuously, because it is not the road normally travelled.   It is the road that is normally condemned.

Before I  finish and go to bed which I really should because I am really tired, I will tell a little story that has haunted me for twenty four hours.  Yesterday we were driving back from Florida with nine kids, and two dogs, and different temperaments rolling around the car that was just about exhausting my patience, when we needed a bathroom stop, as well as a gas stop.  We pulled into a gas station on the wrong side of town, but we couldn't wait any longer so, that was that.  As we turned up the side street to have to u-turn back and find the entrance to the gas station, all of us could not ignore an elderly homeless man sitting under a tree on the upper side of the station.    My kids all had a nervous giggle, and we explained that he was a homeless person, and obviously an old man, and not to stare because that was rude.

I watered and gave the dogs a restroom stop, then put them back in their crate and started towards the store and restrooms of the gas station.  The homeless man was now leaning on the wall about half way up the wall of the station.  I had taken the dogs for a walk where he had been sitting under the tree just a few minutes before I had taken their leads off and put them back in their crate, leaving them in Roger's charge as I went to the restroom.  This small voice came to me as I saw him, fragile, sunburned,  soaked through his clothes with sweat, sipping on a styrofoam cup a with a straw.  He looked exhausted, old, and defeated.  Tears came to my eyes, and I tried to remind myself that I couldn't give too much money in case he was an addict.  It came to me then in an instant as my children were inside the store pondering about which ice-cream they would choose.  I turned to my eldest boy with me, and asked if he had some money, I had left mine in the car, and said I wanted to buy the homeless man an ice-cream.  Dustin grinned back and said he had thought the same thing.  We went to the freezer and chose the best one, he paid for it, and we took it out to the old man.  His face broke out in a big smile, and tears came to his eyes, as he said "Thank-you" and told me what cute little dogs I had.

I was broken, as was Dustin, and reminded of our blessings, all and each and every one of them.  I was so proud of Dustin for thinking about this old man, who was alone, in the devastating heat, and cared enough to spend his pocket money on a treat.  I went in and organized all the kids with their purchases when Rog walked in.  I asked him for his wallet, and promptly went outside as the old man was retreating to his place under the tree on the upper side of the station.  I handed him the money I felt God had asked me to give, just enough to give him a meal, not enough for drugs or alcohol if they were his demons.  His face was radiant, humble, and grateful.  Dustin and I have not been so privileged for a very long time.  Who knows when there are angels amongst us, or just an old man who had no-one, and needs an ice-cream in 106 degree temperature.  God forbid that I would pretend not to see him for the 21st time.