Sometime around 1995 I was struggling financially. Actually all throughout the 90's a struggled but this story takes place is in the mid 90s.
A buddy had told me that he would hire me for day labor to help me get by. The problem was that I didn't know where he was. I had been given his pager number and that should be enough. He needed someone to clean up a work site and I knew how to operate a broom and dust pan so I was qualified.
I drove to Portland and went to a pay phone to make a call. The pager call went through and I waited for the phone to ring. It didn't so I called again and then again; each time spending time and money.
My bills were catching up with me and the moment was catching up with me as well because as a guy in his early twenties I had assumptions and I had been disappointed by how hard life was.
I sat down next to the payphone on the sidewalk and it was as though Christ himself sat down next to me. I felt like someone spoke to me in that moment and said "You put a lot of trust in technology". It was said like an observation of something I was doing and that maybe I should reconsider how much I trusted the technology.
I thought about it a little and realized that He was right. As I was sitting there I remembered the words "Alberta Street" and headed to my car.
I drove a 1973 RoadRunner with red paint and headed off toward a road that is very very long. I am not from Portland and it's amazing that I found Alberta at all. I didn't know what my buddy drove but I was driving and headed in what felt like the right direction.
After really just a few minutes I was in a neighborhood looking for something and I saw movement in my rearview mirror that caught my eye. My buddy was out in the street behind me waving his arms wildly. He apparently did know what I drove, happened to be out front, thought quickly and ran into the street and I happened to look in the rearview mirror before he disappeared.
I found out later that just recently in an effort to curb drug sales payphones could no longer receive phone calls and that my buddy had tried to call. The technology had worked. My phone call went out, bounced up on to a satellite, came back down and was routed to his pager but he was blocked. I had been caught in a rule that was designed to stop the ease of drug sales.
In those early days Jesus took a few minutes and set me straight on something. I was living in an age that my grandparents could have hardly imagined; that was only the nineties. God helped to set me straight that technology would fail me and I know that it will fail us as a whole but that He is reliable, trustworthy, all knowing and caring.
I am struggling with how to boil this entire story down.
Jesus is not our servant but we are His. It's his word that holds the universe together and it's He that gave himself for me. It's also He that demands that I take up my cross and He that told Mary that Martha had chosen the better by waiting at his feet.
There was a woman who anointed Jesus feet with costly perfume and was praised.
Please understand that Jesus is still very clear on who He is and who you are. He still holds the universe together with His word, knows where every sparrow is and set an example of service as the target for greatness.
Don't get confused but be clear on who He is and who you are.
Comments