I continue to practice OAs regulary. I guess I should pass one on once in awhile. Here’s one that made MY day.

I arrived at the workout center for my early morning mid-week circuit-training session in the pouring rain. As I was keying into the entrance a younger woman approached me. “Excuse me,” she asked. “Do you have any jumper cables with you?”

“Sorry,” I said. “No, I don’t.”

“Okay, thanks anyway.” Her head dropped a little as she walked back to her car.

As I stepped into the building the Holy Spirit began to work on me. When my wife did this, I used to call it ‘nagging’. But I’ve learned a lot over the years, so now I call it ‘prompting’.  “Boy, you sure dropped that one quickly,” said the still, small prompting voice. “Didn’t you ask me this morning to show you someone you could be a blessing to today?”

“Okay.”  I also learned not to argue when ‘prompted’.  I zipped my jacket back up and went back out into the rain. I tapped on the window of her car. “Do you have someone you can call?”

She rolled down the window. “I tried my brother, but he must have left for work already,” she replied. “I tried another friend, but there’s no answer.  I guess I’ll wait awhile and see if I can catch my brother at work.”

“Listen,” I said. “I only live a few miles from here, and I have jumpers in my wife’s car. I’ll go and get them and we’ll get you on your way.”

I could see the tension drain from her face. “Oh, thank you. I’ll give you some money for gas.”

“Not necessary,” I replied as I headed for my pickup.

I was back in 15 minutes. She had her hood up already. I pulled alongside her car and hooked up the jumpers. “Okay, give it a try.” The engine roared to life.

She climbed out of her car. “Please, let me pay you something,” she said.

“I won’t hear of it,” I replied. “If I take your money, you’ll rob me of a blessing.”

Suddenly she began to cry. “This has been such a trying week. I found out I have a heart condition so I started working out here to help strengthen it. I just started a new job this week and am kind of on probation to see how it goes. Then my car doesn’t start and I can’t seem to get hold of anyone. If you hadn’t helped me I would have been very late and probably gotten into trouble.”

“What’s your first name?” I asked.

“Rhonda,” she replied.

“Well Rhonda,” I said, “it looks like your week is getting better now. Things always seem to work out. I am going to pray a blessing on you today that things will continue to improve for you.”

“You’ve already been a blessing,” she said. And then to my surprise, she gave me a big hug right there in the pouring rain. “And I’m going to pray a blessing for you to,” she said in my ear. “Thank you.”

Yeah.

–Ken Sweers, Immanuel Reformed Church