It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post, and to tell the truth, it feels a bit odd, but good. The last couple of years I took a break from much of my life, and added to it in other ways. So much has changed it would take volumes to update any who followed me in the past.
So I will just choose to go forward, and let the reader figure “life went on”.
Today was set up to flow like many other days. I had a scheduled estate sale starting at noon (I liquidate estates now part-time and am an online reseller more full time), but one of my sister church campuses is located around the corner from that estate site, so I had chosen to attend there, then head to work for the day. I sat in the center of a long set of adjoining chairs near the back. It is usually where I sit, for no reason really, just because I don’t know many at this campus, save the one friend I have sat with a time or two. I usually attend a different campus, have many friends there, so there is no time I sit alone really. For the longest, I perched there, waiting for service to start. My friend was not in attendance today so I assumed I would be sitting alone pretty much. But close to service time a couple slid into the seats at the end of the row and were the only ones near. The service began, then a young man sat at the opposite end of the row from the couple and was holding a brown bag. New visitors get those bags to welcome them, so I knew this was his first visit to our church, and this campus.
The church service went on, preaching ended, then the worship leaders drew us into song once again at the end, which is not the usual pattern of worship… but for whatever reason, they had flipped the service around. As the songs went on, and those went to the altar to pray, others sang, I could see the man at the end of the row sit down, then slowly bend over with hunched shoulders…and he just sat with his head down…sighing, clasping and unclasping his hands.
I went over, placed a hand on the back of his shoulder. He didn’t look up, he just sat looking down, and then I heard him as he began to cry softly. I just stayed there, hand on his shoulder and prayed for him, as he dealt in his personal moment with God.
Once the song was ending, I went quietly back to my seat, waited for the prayer to end the service, then reached to get my belongings. I hadn’t planned to say a word, I didn’t want to cause any embarrassment or discomfort to him. He gathered his brown bag, then walked over with tears still in his eyes and a big smile. “Thank you so much, I needed that. ” Then came a big ole bear hug. I just smiled, didn’t say a word and turned to leave. I had experienced a “sudden opportunity”.
After leaving church I scurried to the estate site. My friend had back issues and wasn’t going to be able to help much with the estate sale as she has on other occasions. The rain was coming down, day was drizzly and dreary, and we had not a single customer. But we chatted, talked about nonsense, solved the world’s ills, and decided what would become of the craziness we find our lives enveloping at the present. Anyone who knows me is aware I rarely sit and do nothing. I am always moving, working or making things, repairing objects, helping with the grandlittles who now live with me, washing dishes (I am old school and like to do them by hand) or various other things that leave little room for Rhonda moments. I was sad my friend had back ills, but that became another “sudden opportunity” that I may not have made a place for. By the time I left, I wanted to believe she felt a bit better. I had taken a real day of rest, and we had caught up on each others’ lives in a totally unplanned but divinely orchestrated way.
On the drive home I stopped in at a local store to pick up a few bargains. Many were in plastic totes outside the store and marked “clearance’. Being a reseller I rarely pass by a clearance pile, it begs me to find those little treasures I can turn into cash. I had my phone in hand looking up some things on Ebay so I would know if they were of any value and the front doors of the store opened. A man walked swiftly by me, got in his car and as he was starting it up, the cashier ran out the front waving his arms. “It didn’t go through, sir, SIR…it didn’t go through!” As the car turned around, and sped away, the cashier slumped his shoulders in exasperation thinking the man had gotten away with the merchandise on his watch. I quickly raised my phone, aimed it at the license plate and snapped several photos as the car zoomed out into traffic and away. The cashier said “wow…you are fast!” I gave him the info he needed, and proceeded to shop the inside the store….and realized that was a third “sudden opportunity” I had embraced today.
The fourth came in a more usual way, without fanfare or fuss. I sent a text to my friend I had missed at church, simply letting him know he was missed. I had started to contact him a couple of times during the day but figured he was busy, and he was. He had several things going awry during his day, frustrating issues with his phone among other things. I couldn’t have messaged him earlier if I had wanted to. He had been dealing with so much today, and had not been home long from the sounds of his return text. We exchanged a few pleasantries, and I think that “sudden opportunity” to chat and laugh together a moment or two made him feel a bit better at the end of a pretty crummy day.
You know…I wonder, here at the end of my own day, how many times I have given up the chance to be that “sudden opportunity” in someone’s life because I was rushing around, not paying attention, self-involved or too tangled up in my own problems to see others that may need a friendly touch, a kind word, a moment of shared laughter. In the case of one friend, a handful of texting moments may have given him a bit of ease in his troubled spirit right before his sleep. A few hours with my girlfriend made her forget her back troubles and we were able to visit uninterrupted since no customers inserted themselves into our day. One moment of clear thinking and observation captured a thief. And three minutes with a nameless man may have helped him approach God in confidence because he knew he was not alone. As someone who schedules every waking moment, stepping back may give me a quietness of spirit, a rest in my walk with the Lord…and maybe many more special opportunities to be a bit more “sudden” in my life path.
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