When You Least Expect It

We were sitting at dinner this evening with great friends at Pacos Tacos by LAX.  The conversation drifted to how God works in our lives.  We had been reminiscing about "old times" as they still live on the West coast and we had moved to the East coast.  Some of the comments were the following:

1.  Blessings come from serving others
2.  Sometimes you feel God is far away, but He ia always  pursuing those who belong to Him.
3.  Life experiences are not for bitterness or betterness but for spiritual and personal growth.
4.  Man always fails and there is no one perfect but the Lord Jesus.
5.  Our expectations need to be off of man and onto God.
6.  Wherever we are, God can use us.

Well after we all agreed that there is nothing better than being in fellowship with God and serving Him, we paid the bill and left the restuarant.  Now I must admit, in the Bible Belt there are a lot more churches than there are in the LAX area.  Los Angeles has a lot of people but I do not know what the ratio is of people that go to church.  I know in the Carolinas, where I live, there is a church on nearly every corner.  At least it seems that way.

After we were in the car and headed back to our friends home we all of a sudden see someone down on the street after being hit by a car on his bicycle.  It was one of those moments where you feel helpless.  We finished crossing the intersection and pulled over as soon as it was safe to do so.  The person who hit the bicyclist had drove off, then pulled over to check her car.  Then she got back in the car and drove away like a maniac.  Since we were all good citizens, we jammed the pedal to the medal and followed her.  She has trying to get away from us, but we were not to be outdriven.   I called 911 and we were able to report the license number, make of car, and the street we were on.   Well I sure didn't know where we were so I handed the phone to my friend and she proceeded to give precise street information and directions where the getaway car was.   The dispatcher then politely told us not to follow her anymore as we would be liable if she were in a wreck.  We were a little disappointed we couldn't be deputized as in the old western movies in order to keep pursuing the getaway car, but we did as the dispatcher asked and went back to the crime scene and reported our part to the police.

The young man that was hit is going to have a bad headache for awhile and his friends were going to haul his bike home while his mom was coming to take him home.  My husband was talking to the young man and as we turned to go back to our car I asked that young man, Edwardo, if we could pray for him.  He said yes he would like that.  So out there in the Marina Del Rey and LAX area, we stood on the curbside with firemen on one side and police on the other and prayed with this young man.

As my husband, me, and our friends walked back to our car, we were amazed to see God give us opportunity to be able to help someone who had a need in a huge city where an emphasis is not on living for the Lord.  We weren't expecting that ministry opportunity but it felt good to be used by God.

In order to serve Him, one must be available.  We were later that we had wanted to be getting to our hotel room, and our friends got home later than they wanted, but it did not matter.  Being used by God is well worth the interruptions in life.  The King of all universes and creator of all creation used us to minister and care for someone.  God does work in amazing ways.  Why God chose us for that particular event I do not know, but I am glad He did.