What God taught me through a dog and a cup of coffee.
One of my New Year’s goals is to share more of my stories. I had a lot of stories when I was on the “mission field”, but the mission field is everywhere…even in America where my comfort zone has a pretty big perimeter. Here are two stories that happened to me in the last few weeks: one happening on my to Iowa for Christmas and one happening on my way back. They both occurred in airports.
December 19, 2017
I was sitting in the Delta Sky Lounge in the Atlanta Airport early today.
The women next to me gets a text and starts saying, “Oh, my God. Oh, my God” very frantically. She called whoever texted her. She hung up and started crying.
I look around. People with their faces buried in their computers drinking their cocktails ignoring the fact that she’s in distress. I quickly realize I’m one of those people and hate that.
I ask, “Are you okay?”
She said, “My friend’s service dog ran out of the house and got hit by a car. He was such a good dog and very loyal to my friend. Thank you so much for asking.”
I just said, “That’s so sad. I’m sorry. I just didn’t want you to feel alone in this moment.”
“Well, thank you. I need to pull myself together now because I have a meeting.”
It dawned on me that the other people around us had to be aware she was upset, and yet, nobody did or said anything.
People are hurting all around us. I am often one of those people. I don’t think we need more awareness of this fact. Watch the news. Read Facebook posts. We have enough awareness to last us awhile. We need more action and to be better stewards of the awareness we already have.
This situation really challenged me to start acting and speaking on the awareness I already have.
January 2, 2018
After spending all night in the Midway Airport in Chicago, I finally boarded my flight at 5:10 AM. I landed in Atlanta about an hour and a half later.
My friend, Courtney was flying in an hour later, and she was my ride home. I deboarded the plane, retrieved my bags, and sat in the airport’s atrium waiting for her.
My phone died, so I was looking for an outlet. After a few minutes, it turned on…just in time for a girl from Jamaica asked me if she could use my phone to make a phone call because she didn’t have American service and couldn’t connect to thew wifi. I let her. Then, she went on her way.
A few minutes later, a man sitting next to me asked if I had the new iPhone X. I said, “Yea!” He asked me how it was different from previous model. I told him a few things about it.
He then asked me where I was coming from. I told him I spent Christmas and New Year’s in my home state of Iowa with my family. Feeling like I needed to reciprocate, I asked him where he was coming from or going to. He said something that caught me off guard: “Oh, I’m just here to get out of the cold for a bit. I’m homeless.”
We kept talking for a few more minutes. Before I left, he asked me a question that I was admittedly expecting, “Would you mind buying me a cup of coffee? A warm cup would be really nice.”
For a split second, I had the battle of wanting to do it vs. hearing years of people telling me that you don’t help anyone by just giving them things. (Yadda, yadda, yadda.)
The Starbucks was a stone’s throw away. I said, “Sure. Let’s go.” I told him I would get him a venti black coffee and a breakfast sandwich. It came out to be like $7. I gave the cashier his name to call out his order because Courtney had since arrived and I had to go.
I told Courtney about what happenend. As I was verbally processing, I heard the Lord say to me, “Clay, stop worrying about whether or not you did the right thing. You did the right thing. You would buy coffee for a millionaire if I asked you to do so. Your generosity is not dependent on what the receiving end has or doesn’t have.”
Boom. I now knew what I needed to know.
It’s funny because when I got home a few hours later, I found $22 on my dresser. I asked my roommate, Dan about it. He said, “Oh, yea. Those clothes you were getting rid of. I took them to Plato’s Closet to see if they’d buy them. They bought everything for $22.”
My mind instantly went back to what happened earlier. I sacrificed $7. Then, I “unexpectedly” got $22. I was suprised but not at the same time. Sacrifice is a good investment.
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Thank you!
