Of God and Inconvenience

It was a Wednesday afternoon. I had just gotten of work and was walking briskly to catch a bus that would arrive in a few minutes. I had gotten about two blocks away from the bus stop in question when I saw some lady I knew. As is my habit, I say hello and she starts to chat with me for a while. The usual small talk of work and current life events. She asks me some business questions and I glance at my watch; I have a few moments, but not long, so I stick around a moment.

In the process, she starts talking about her personal life and other things. By this point, we've crossed the street to continue the conversation. This is about the point where I feel the slightest bit of discomfort; I have a choice to make here and it's creeping up. Do I leave to catch my bus or do I talk some more? She explains that she was wandering about and didn't intend to stay as long as she had, but she couldn't escape the feeling she should stay and wait. At the point she was most curious about why she had stayed, I appeared. Even before that, I thought about how she needed encouragement. What to do, though? I had to wait another whole hour if I missed this bus and I didn't want to walk the 3.5 miles home.

I firmed up my resolve to just stay and encourage her. As we spoke, she felt peace. Apparently this was a very dear topic to her; she nearly started crying in the street. She thanked me for being the voice of God to her. We exchanged information and went our separate ways.

I snapped back to focus and got down to the bus stop. I called the bus depot, but it was busy and I didn't get through. No matter, I decided it was worth the inconvenience. I could play with my iPhone or read a book until the next bus came.

However, amusingly enough, the bus I waited for came around the corner. Apparently, it was a few minutes behind.

It's these moments -- where you have to choose between going/doing what you want versus what He wants -- that you get to see God do things like this.

God seems to have absolutely zero problems with inconveniencing you to bless someone else. He has no problem with ignoring your plans and schedules and timelines. He takes no thought for whatever you're in a hurry to accomplish. He'll just throw these out-of-season moments at your face full force and expect you to be sensitive enough to know the moment you're in.

If you feel foolish for not doing the more practical thing, that's fine and you probably did it right.