One of the best things in life is showing up at just the right time for someone. Finding yourself prompted to move at just the right time. I find so much joy in this, as I’ve seen people show up at just the right time in my life and in turn done the same for others. My Mom always reminded us as kids, “God is the source and people his channels”.
It happens in the most innocent of ways and sometimes from the most unusual circumstances. Yesterday I woke up with a dream of my running on a pretty flat road or track; it dipped down a little in some places. I was thinking in my dream how nice it was to be able to take off in a sprint and really feel like you were flying through the gears as you reached a maximum speed.
I was having a hard time with that and couldn’t do it like I’d been able to so easily when I was younger and I kind of made a little dream-goal if you will to work on that in my dream. So yesterday I find myself resting a bit more then normal and eating Mac n Cheese for lunch. That’s a little unusual for me on the carbohydrate level.
My ex picked up our child in the hand-off and I thought you know I should go on a good run. I had looked at my dream through all the prisms of symbolism in the big general picture throughout the day, but I hadn’t actually gone out and hit the pavement for a couple of weeks. I think my last run was 4 miles a few weeks ago.
Determined to go out I got dressed in my jogging gear and decide to go by this house I’d seen on a real estate add as a fixer upper project I was entertaining. It took me on a different course than was my normal running course. I did my first full marathon run last year around July but after it was done and checked off the bucket list I had kind of waned a bit in training. The point is I did have some normal training runs that I was abandoning for reasons I didn’t understand fully.
I ran by and checked the house out a little and then continued on my way having for the first time a little reflection on my dream in which I saw “the track was a little flat”. Indeed it was I thought as the ups and down associated in my normal training course were not present in this run which was relatively flat.
I started thinking as I was running about where I should go or which track I should make and thought about the few times I’d missed seeing my ex at her house and the request of my son to stop by and see his bedroom. We have a very nice and amicable relationship now and my appearing wouldn’t be troubling.
I thought if I ran to my ex’s house that’s a little over seven miles away and back that would be a half marathon on the check list. No medal, but I lose 4,000 calories and it wouldn’t cost me $80 dollars like a marathon race would. I thought about the rock my son had recently given me at his pre-school graduation that said, “My Dad Rocks” and thought that’s the best medal I could ever have hope to have.
Haven’t run that long for awhile so I knew it would challenge me. I had done that route one other time about 2 years ago and had showed up to knock on the door only to find no one home. As I ran I thought that would be funny to see that happen again as I rounded the last block and saw her in the yard.
She was bent over in a hole at least an arm deep in the grass surrounded in mud with my son looking on. The expression on kids faces is so funny as you watch them looking and watching their parents do something they have no idea about. It’s like, what the heck is she doing digging holes? I don’t know but it looks pretty cool maybe I should have a go at this?
The root of the problem was a main line leak in the sprinkler system. Nothing she couldn’t handle but I teased her as I grabbed the shovel and said, “I don’t want to take the dream away you had of playing in the mud while replacing a main-line leak in your sprinkler system, but if you want I can help you?” She laughed and said “I appreciated that, and you’re right it wasn’t my dream”. I teased and said that my hands didn’t have a $25 dollar paint job on them.
Anyway, I reflected on pulling up from my jog at just the right time to help out. Lots of different routes to choose from but only one track had been run. You may have had the same type of experience. I know I sure have.
Real quickly one time I found myself spinning in circles on the freeway and flying off an embankment landing my front end in about 4 foot of cold icy water in a snowstorm in the dead of night. I had no sooner got out of the car in waste deep water when a guy had stopped to see if he could help. I had a rope I fumbled for in the pitch black darkness, and actually had to go under the water to attach it to the rear axle of my car. He pulled me out on the side of the freeway; I’d unhooked the rope, said thanks and watched him drive off and I don’t think even 15 minutes had passed.
Thank God he’d stopped. It had all but almost seemed practiced or orchestrated I thought. That couldn’t have gone off any better if a scene for a movie was being performed and we all knew what to do, but it hadn’t been practiced at all. It was impromptu.
Before I could put my blinker on a cop pulled up behind me and put his lights on with no idea what had happened. He did notice I was drenched in the driver’s seat and while it wasn’t alcohol he smelt things must have smelled a little swampy.
He cussed me out for driving too fast for the weather condition and I just sat there thinking to myself this it’s kind of funny to be cussed out for driving 35 mph on a freeway. I agreed with him and was cleared to go and thanked him for my lecture which although hard I did notice the truth of. I thought about the man who had stopped and saved me from a $500 towing bill and maybe a ticket or a fine for littering the highway if the cop had got there 5 minutes earlier.
I was so grateful. While these are dramatic, there are thousands of times I’ve recognized I was at the right place at the right time, and others were to. Gratefulness to the people showing up at just the right time is certainly one way to look at it with appreciation and gratitude. Realizing the Spirit of God that influences people in directions to help you at just the right time is another reason to get down on your knees every night and thank the Lord for all your many blessings.
If you can’t imagine my receiving that kind of help from that man pulling over and pulling my vehicle out of the icy mud, snow and water in the black of night without my thanking him, you also will understand there was a Spirit which influenced him to make that choice at that exact flashing second of time in the hellish circumstances. I’m sure he could have been on his way to wherever he was going with a lot less trouble than stopping.
My gratitude would be sorely and painfully missed without a full recognition of that appreciation and recognition to God in a prayer of gratitude for the Spirit which called to that man to be my angel and stop.
I find a great deal of treasure in joy and happiness lending a hand where I can and when you find yourself in those circumstances where God has chosen you to help someone isn’t it amazing?! It doesn’t really matter how rich you are, or how big of house you live in, what position you have in the world ladder, or how pretty or talented you are God can choose you to be an instrument in his hands to help someone where ever you are.
Being an instrument or angel in God’s hands will bring you great happiness and joy in this life. When you stop what you’re doing, and give your life or time to someone, a great joy comes to you. That joy is God’s love to you in his employment as an angel of mercy.
Keep your eyes open and trust in that spirit which teaches truth or prompts you to do good works in perilous times and amazing joy and happiness can come to you wherever you are. There are many of God’s children needing a hand and you can be the angel that God has sent. I know God is always on time and shows up in the time of need. No doubt about it God has real angels that fly and are not of this world, but what is equally astounding is the great joy that we can have in his employment here on Earth simply recognizing the prompting of the Spirit or Angels of God unseen; being an angel is just as nice as receiving one.
In John 14:16 Jesus says in verse 14, “ And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; v17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. V18 I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you.”
John 15:10 “As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. Vs10 If ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. Vs11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. Vs.12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.”
Sincerely,
Cody Robert Judy
P.S. Happy Birthday yesterday Mom.
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