THE LIVES WE TOUCH

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

I read a tearjerker story in a magazine about twelve years ago entitled, “The Lives We Touch”. I have shared about that story on the blog sometime ago. It turns out it was fictional (but reads like a true story). It’s about an elementary school teacher who takes an interest in an emotionally and socially troubled student and whose interest in that kid completely turns his life around and leads him on a path to great academic and social success. It is interesting the way God can lead our lives and use us to impact others- whether that’s in long-term relationships with people or whether it’s in what the world would call “chance” encounters.

I am very rarely on-line during the weekends. The internet can sap my time and energy if I allow it to, so most of the time I stay away from it on the weekends and try to focus on other matters. Yesterday I had an experience that I found myself reflecting on over breakfast- to the point that I wanted to share it. Some who read this may think I’m writing this to brag about myself, but I’m really not. I’m just trying to encourage us all to be more “tuned in” to what God may want to do in our lives and how He may want to use us to “touch” others lives for His purpose.

On my way home yesterday afternoon, I drove to the downtown Framingham post office to mail off an anniversary card. I DO pass a mailbox on my regular route home, but the pickup time there is 4:00 and it was now almost 4:30. The card was for an elderly couple whose anniversary is Tuesday. With Sunday and the holiday, I was concerned they might not get the card on time if I mailed it from my usual box. As I walked from my car to the post office door, a woman passed me walking in the opposite direction. She was short, just a little bit overweight, and probably in her 30s. She had kind of a strange look on her face. I’d describe the look as a combination of confusion, frustration, sadness and introspection. I glanced her way and gave her kind of a half smile. I did not expect her reaction. She blurted out:

“Did you ever just want to THROW yourself in front of a TRAIN?!”

She kept going. As I rounded the corner to the front of the post office, I saw her get into an SUV. I mailed my card. To my surprise, there she was AGAIN, now walking back into the post office. Curious, I followed her in. She went up to the counter where there was a pile of large manilla envelopes she was mailing. Apparently she hadn’t had enough money for the postage.

Is it normal to tell a stranger you want to “THROW yourself in front of a TRAIN” because you have to go back to your SUV to get more money for postage? No, of course that’s not normal. In my entire life, I don’t think I’ve ever had a stranger on the street blurt something like that out before. I have no idea who that woman was. I have no idea what’s really going on in her life. I took out one of my business cards. On it, I wrote in pen, “Yes I have felt like that, but God kept me from it.” I walked up to her SUV and managed to leave it on the driver’s side window- fitting it into the rubber strip just below the window.

She has my phone number and e-mail address. Will I ever hear from that woman? I don’t know. But if she needed some “sign from God” or something like that, I’d say she got one.

Had I left my office a few minutes earlier, or had Monday not been a holiday, I would probably just have dropped that card in my “regular” mailbox and not gone to the post office.

Karen Mains who used to be on the “Chapel of the Air” radio broadcast calls moments such as that “I spies”. It’s when you just know God is in it.

So, no, I’m not writing this to brag. I’m just grateful to have been in the right place at the right time yesterday. We never know what lives we may touch if we’re just open to it.