He’s so bossy

Have you ever been overwhelmed with thoughts compelling you to do something that seems absolutely ridiculous? (Get your mind out of the gutter people, I’m talking about acts of kindness here.)

Recently, I heard Beth Moore tell her “hairbrush story” and was reminded of a very similar experience I had. In Beth’s story, she was sitting in an airport waiting for a flight when an older man with long, matted hair was wheeled next to her. She was overcome with the irresistible urge to… brush this complete stranger’s gnarly hair. Watch how it all turned out.

In my “hairbrush story,” the kids were at school, my husband was at work, and I was on my way from my house to my church Target. Anyway, while I normally take surface streets, something compelled me to take the highway for the two-mile trip. As I neared the store, I noticed a young couple carrying an infant carrier, walking along the side of the highway.

As I approached them, I felt a gentle tugging at my heart, and wondered if I should offer them a ride. This wasn’t the first time I had felt this type of tugging. Whenever I did, I quickly squashed it by saying (to myself), “No way, José. That guy could be an ax murderer!” And that usually ended any thoughts I might have had about being a good samaritan that day.

But on this particular day, something caught in my throat as I tried to make that same argument. I mean, what ax murderer travels with his wife and infant, right?

And still I tried ignoring the gentle tugging, until it was no longer gentle.

“What?!” I practically screamed at God. “You want me to take time out of my busy day (I had lots of shopping to do at Target, after all) to go pick up complete strangers and take them wherever they want to go? You can’t be serious!” And then, as if I were a little child throwing a fit, I added, “Why can’t they get their own car?!”

I know it sounds crazy, but it was as if someone else took over driving my car at that point. He ignored my temper tantrum and took matters into His own hands. I found myself turning into the Department of Motor Vehicles parking lot, just behind the young couple.

Next thing I know, I’m getting out of my car and shouting over the embankment, “Do you need a ride?”

The turned and stared at me. So I repeated even louder, “Do you need a ride?”

I was shaking as they walked toward me tentatively.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

Great. Thanks a lot, God. They’re headed about 10 miles away.

In the opposite direction of my house and Target.

“Can you take us?” they wondered.

Take them, that voice told me. Dang it, He’s so bossy sometimes!

“Of course.” I gulped, and added a “My pleasure!” for good measure.

Why was I so petrified? God told me to pick them up, so He must have a plan (that doesn’t involve me getting chopped into tiny pieces), right?

Their little girl was adorable. At just two months old, she was still pretty tiny. They didn’t know how to hook her car seat in, but thankfully I had plenty of experience with that. Their English was poor, and my Spanish was even poorer, but we spent the first part of the trip attempting to get to know one another.

Turns out, they were immigrants from Guatemala, who had taken the bus to the DMV to apply for a driver’s license. Unfortunately, the bus schedule is quite sparse, and instead of waiting several hours for the next bus they decided to start walking. They didn’t realize they could potentially walk for hours before getting home.

When we reached the limit of our respective foreign language abilities, I wondered if I should ask them whether they knew Jesus. I wanted to ask them, but I felt silly, plus I didn’t quite know what to say in Spanish. I argued with myself for a few minutes  until suddenly the man broke the silence.

“Are you a believer?” he asked.

Dumbfounded, I choked out an affirmative response. When I wondered aloud what prompted him to ask that, he pointed to the radio (which was tuned to the local Christian station). Duh.

It was as if God had gotten fed up with my hemming and hawing over whether to talk about about my faith, and said, fine, I’ll have him do it. Ooops.

We talked a little about where we each attended church until we got close to their destination. When he told me he was late for one of his jobs, I headed there instead.

So I dropped them at McDonald’s, just 20 minutes after the adventure had begun. He did offer to pay me, but I of course wouldn’t accept any money.

That wasn’t why I picked them up.

I learned a lot about the power of God that day. I mean, wouldn’t it be amazing if we all actually obeyed that still, small voice (OK, sometimes it’s not so small) and acted as His hands and His feet? Of course, if it had totally been up to me, I probably would have continued past them and gone shopping instead.

But I didn’t even make it to Target that day.

My hands were still shaking when I turned the car around and started toward home, but I wore the biggest smile for the rest of the day. I can’t even fully explain how amazing it was to be used by God in such a way. He took an ordinary task (driving someone to work) and made it extraordinary. And we were all blessed by it.

[Edited to add this: I "drive on by" too many times... I didn't write this so you might think say how great I am (cause I'm not!), but so we could all imagine what would happen if we actually "obeyed" more often than not... ]