Behind a Fence

God chooses to use us! Are you able to grasp the bigness of that? He doesn’t need us, He wants us! Even more crazy is that He chooses to use us when we are being selfish or angry or any other number of not so nice things! After discussing this with my friend last night and hearing about some adventures she had with an older lady at Goodwill I got to see it in my own life! And all I can say is thank you Jesus! But I am getting ahead of myself, I think a little background is necessary . . . because not only did God use me and bless me last night but He showed his hand so clearly in the whole situation. I did not realize it at the time but God was directing my steps all night last night!

I had gone to a friends apartment to hang out. There are three of us that have been best friends for a while now. Sisters by choice. But one friend refused to talk to me for a reason unknown to me at the time. So I was hanging out with the other friend and although I knew it was not appropriate before I left I had to bring it up. Why wont she talk to me? What did I do? What can I do? There were no good answers. I knew that but I wanted to express how sad, angry and hurt I was. So i did. When I left her apartment I was far from being in a good state.

So i jumped in my car, turned the bass and volume up on my radio and played my angry music. When I do this I keep my window down. Not sure why but this is the procedure for me when I am angry. I was focused on how my friend had hurt me and yet unfairly accused me of being a problem in some way that she wouldn’t even tell me. I was an excellent hot head that night.

At this point it was after 11pm and I wanted to get home and go to sleep. But as I was driving home God had other plans. As I was driving through a neighborhood only a few blocks from my apartment I heard something that I could not distinguish. Of course I was driving too fast because that is also what I do but as I drove by I realized what it was. I stopped practically in the middle of an intersection to “assess” the situation. That is when I realized what I saw. There was an elderly woman standing inside of her ten foot chain link fence, hitting it with a stick yelling “Help me!”

First thought - this lady has bad dementia and her family doesn’t know she has gotten out. Sad but true. I couldn’t let her stay out there so I threw my car in reverse and pulled up to ask her what she needed. She then told me that when she was letting the dogs in from their evening time outside the door shut and she got locked out. That was hours ago. 

I called my friend and asked that she bring a chair and bottle of water and then I called Pop-a-lock. We lowered the chair over the fence to her so she could sit down and we stood on the other side of the fence talking about life until the young man came to help her in the house. In all honestly I could have done it much more quickly and without the ridiculous fee, but I didn’t want to scare her. It was late after all.

Once we got her in and settled we were both ready to go home and get to sleep but she was not. Turns out this lady has no family to speak of and is very lonely. She talked and talked for hours before we could break away. She had plenty of stories to tell and enough dementia that we got to hear several of them more than once.

Once we were finally able to leave I was exhausted yet filled with joy. As I looked at the possibilities of things to do that Friday night I had a lot of options. I even planned on working at an event at the church that night but did not have peace about going. Had I chosen any other option she might have spent the night outside. Or someone else would have stopped and I would have missed out on a blessing. As an orphan of sorts myself I have an understanding of her situation and my heart was drawn to her.

God wants to use us to bless others and through that He blesses us. The beautiful thing is that you don’t have to be perfect to be used. You can even be cranky if you keep your heart in a position to hear God. And He sees you through the blood of His Son, so you are not disqualified. How cool is that? Keep your heart in tune with Jesus and His heart for His people. You will be given awesome opportunities to love others and you will receive great joy!