Divine Appointment

Sometimes you must stop and ask, “Who am I? What am I?  Why am I here" This was not one of those times.  After years of training, with the help of Mark’s wife Colleen, who would be on the lookout for such to relay to Mark and me, I had come to recognize “opportunities to serve” when they are presented.  Within moments of seeing the blown-out sidewalls on the tire and the look of consternation on the couple’s face, I realize that I was at a moment of Divine appointment, and I was exactly where I was supposed to be.

I was pursuing another agenda that Sunday afternoon, running errands in preparation for an early morning fishing trip the next day.  I was driving home from picking up my fishing license and an extra fishing pole for a friend to use, when I was prompted by that still quiet voice to go get gas.  I did not need to get gas, having enough gas in the tank to get to the dock and back in the morning, but still I was prompted to go ahead and fill up my tank for the week.   The detour would cut into my time schedule because I was hoping to get in a bike ride and a park workout before sunset.  Nonetheless, I had learned to heed the still quiet voice. 

I did something unusual, at least for me, when I got gas.  I failed to look at my gas gage.  I usually will do an accurate calculation of need before giving the cashier cash. I had not looked at my gas gage since morning, so I estimated based on how much I had driven since then.  I overestimated the fill-up and the pump shut off with $1.37 left. I was tempted to try to overfill, given $1.37-worth was only small volume, but decided to not potentially risk wasting any in the recovery nozzle and went in to get my change. That put me at the right place and time, exiting the station, to see a couple of young people from Sweden standing and staring at the right rear tire of their car.

I abandoned my agenda and stepped into the moment with them.  If I had just kept walking someone else would have offered help, but who knows if I had come into my “position for such a time as this?”  I initiated a conversation with the man remarking, “That is a pretty good blow-out; you’ve destroyed all of that one.”  The first solution I offered was seeing if we could get it to Pep-Boys a mile away in time to get that tire replaced.  That wasn’t going to happen, because a quick internet search showed they were closing in 30 minutes.  I then moved to the next option and suggested we try the spare. 

The first affirmation I got that I was exactly where I was supposed to be, was when man asked, “Does this car even have a spare? I am not sure.”  I was in the moment with him, and introductions were made: I learned that Dani and Chemme, had come from Sweden recently and had acquired the car used soon after their arrival.  Being from Sweden won points with me, because one of my favorite memories was working with Little Swedish Doctor (LSD), and overhearing her regular video conferences with her parents in Swedish.  When Dani said Sweden, I resisted the urge to say, “Oh, the people who get together to do the silly frog dance to celebrate mid-summer!” 

Instead, I asked them to pop the hood, so I can check for a spare.  There was a spare in the back, but the jack was rusted.  I said, “No problem, we can use mine.”  Retrieving my jack, I began a conversation with Dani as we went through the process of changing the tire.  This was when I got the second affirmation that I was in the right place at the right time by Divine appointment.  Dani revealed that he had learned the restaurant business growing up from a father who owned restaurants.  He came to the United States to work as a consultant to help develop some new restaurant concepts.  He was someone who could empathize with my passion for the culinary arts, a man after-my-own heart.  He understood when I said, “People have suggested that I start a restaurant, but that is a lot of hard work for a low profit margin.”  Dani told me about a friend who works as an executive chef for a company that does food for airport cafeterias, because it is a lot more lucrative and a lot less work than being a chef in a high-end restaurant. 

When we got the spare on, I noticed it was very low on pressure.  I offered, “No problem I have a portable electric pump in my car.”  (A few months prior, I bought the pump to deal with a slow leak in my right front tire which required me to add 4 psi of pressure every week.)  When I could not get electricity out of the jack in their car, I just went and pulled my car alongside theirs.  Waiting for the spare to inflate gave me a moment to tell Dani about my east-coast-west-coast rivalry over the culinary arts with my nemesis cousin, The Richard Harris, who has become opinionated on the topic since graduating from culinary school.  Nonetheless, it is probably a safer rivalry than when we were both young competitive wrestlers and I sought to meet him on the mat to exact revenge for all the times during my childhood he took me out in his back yard and practiced his martial arts on me.  I showed Dani a couple of dishes I made, plated on dinnerware my cousin Richard had sent me as a gift. Another confirmation that I was in the right place at the right time was when Dani showed me a couple of Middle eastern and Mexican fusion dishes from the new restaurant concept that were plated on very similar dinnerware.  

After the tire was inflated and checked, Dani insisted on rewarding me with cash pulling out a large bill from his wallet. I tried to explain that reward was not necessary, “It was all fun and games; I am happy to have the opportunity to serve.” We played volleyball with that bill batting it back-and-forth.  I already felt rewarded enough by Chemme going into the gas station mini-mart and getting me a bottle of the fancy bottled water.  She also had some moist wipes at the ready at the end for me to wipe the sweat from my brow.  The only thing more I wanted from the experience was the opportunity to share with them my business card, and when I turned to get the card out of my car, he placed the money in my center console.   A got further confirmation that I was in the right place at the right time when Dani displayed curiosity regarding my business card, which showed the cover of Days of Elijah on its front.  He asked about the name.  I explained, The book is cryptically named after my son, Elliot: The Hebrew pronunciation of Elijah is ‘Eli-Ah’ and Eli-Ah-T, means ‘of Elijah’ or ‘like Elijah.’”

 

Dani nodded affirmation stating, “Hebrew is an Aramaic language.  My family is Lebanese, so I grew up speaking an Aramaic language.”  From Dani's expression when he said that, I got the sense that his understanding of the significance of Elijah was even deeper.  Somehow, the discussion wandered to the topic of my most recent book, “A Gift for a Special Child.”  I went ahead and told them the back-story to the book, how, the night before a baby shower for a young African woman expecting a baby, I heard a still quiet voice remark, regarding the gift I bought, “Those baby monitors are a cute gift and all, but they aren’t the gift you need to give to the child.” When I spoke back to the voice saying, “So what is the is the gift I am supposed to give,” the voice said clearly, “The gift will be the story you tell.” I was told this a couple of times, including before I went to sleep, when I reiterated, “I ain’t got no story; YOU NEED TO LEAVE ME ALONE!” I was left alone to drift off to sleep, but at 6:35 am I awoke in the middle of a dream in which I was in Africa. I immediately recognized, “Oh, this is the story I am supposed to tell.” I wrote the story down, and that day I told the story at the baby shower wearing my story-teller’s shirt.

I told Dani and Chemme that story, knowing they might think I am a crazy man who hears voices. However, it was the same voice that had caused me to stop and help them saying, “Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.”  I was happy to have the opportunity to lend them my time and my tools. 

p.s.  I still got home in time to do a bike ride around Newport Back Bay and complete my Park workout.

References:

1. " And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14b)
   
2. Evidence that that Swedes really do get tothether to sing the Little Frog Song for midsummer.
3. Days of Elijah, by Derek Vincent Taylor
4. A Gift for a Special Child by Derek Vincent Taylor with Illustrations by William Wilkerson. 
5.  Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. (Matthew 5:42)