SILLY HUMAN

A few years ago, it was a beautiful morning in Indianapolis, sunny and only slightly warm.  I was preparing for my first full day at the Christian Church (DOC) General Assembly across town.  I woke up to a cat on my face (Mr. Blu, Cito’s cat), and got up, got ready and prepared to walk across town to the Convention Center…by way of a coffee shop.

The condo where I was staying was on the upper east side and the Convention Center is in the middle west side, so it was a good walk, but I didn’t need to be there till around 11:00am.  I set my things out to get ready and walk out the door, but before I did I noticed the “rodent traps (sticky)“, purchased for whatever was crawling up the fireplace vent and getting into the wall.  I decided to be a good guy and place the trap under the vent on the fenced in deck.  I carefully removed the sticky trap and carried it outside, through the sliding screen door and the hinged glass & wrought-iron door to the deck.  It was beautiful outside.  I carefully set the trap and weighed it down on one side with a brick, and went back to the door.

The LOCKED door.

 That’s right.  It automatically locked when it shut.  The front door was locked as well.  And there, sitting on the dining table, almost within reach but on the other side of the LOCKED glass door, was my phone…my PHONE (with the key code for the garage…which, of course, I didn’t have memorized.)  And sitting by it, quietly judging me, was Mr. Blu. (I saw him mouth the words, “silly human”).

I was stuck, out of the condo.  No phone.  No keys.  No idea what to do next.

During my first wave of panic (“O crap! O crap! O crap!” is close to what I was thinking), the quiet voice of the Spirit (I know it wasn’t MY OWN VOICE, because I wasn’t thinking THAT clearly) said, “Count your blessings.”

“My BLESSINGS?  Are you KIDDING?!”

Then I did.

1) I was dressed…a blessing for everyone involved. 

2) It wasn’t night.

3) it wasn’t raining

4) I could walk

5) I DID know where Cito was (with the key code)…and, actually his office was in walking distance.

I kept counting and felt better.  So I started walking the few blocks to where Cito worked.  After 5 to 10 minutes I arrived at the large building where he worked. I got on the elevator and went up to the floor.  The door opened to a lobby filled with crates and carts…and then it hit me…today was the day his ENTIRE OFFICE WAS MOVING TO ANOTHER BUILDING!

“Count your blessings.”  Whatever.

I went to the main door and there, thankfully, were the lone two employees left.  I introduced myself and they, because of their love for Cito and not their trust of ME, probably…called him at his new desk, he gave me the key code and I happily walked back to the condo.

On my way I came across a younger woman with a backback over her shoulder…she held out a piece of paper as she approached me, and I could see tears in her eyes as she asked, in poor English, if I knew the  address hand-written on the paper.  She was lost and had been wandering around downtown for an hour.

It just so happened that I knew exactly where it was, and we were close enough that I could walk her part of the way.  She was so thankful, I felt like I had just given her a million dollars.

She went happily on her way.  I unlocked the condo, grabbed my stuff and trekked over to the Convention Center, thinking about my morning and what I would have done differently.  Of course, there was nothing I could’ve done.  I wrote it off as a bad start to the day…until I arrived at the Convention and listened to the first scripture read before the meeting:  Esther 4:14 (I’ll let you look it up). 

What I heard the scripture say, was: “Who knows but that you locked yourself out for such a moment as this one, so that you and the lost girl would cross paths.”

Then I realized, once more:

Every moment has its time.
Every person has their place.
Don’t brush aside either,
Or you may also brush aside
God’s wish for you to either
Enjoy or be the miracle.