One of the coolest things as a high school teenager was when I would call the radio station to request a song. Sometimes they would say things like, “We’ll get that on for you in the next hour,” or, “We’ll try to play this, tonight.” You could pretty much tell if they would or wouldn’t play your song by the way they answered you. It seemed especially likely if they asked your name, so they could throw in a, “Here’s ‘Closer to Fine’ by the Indigo Girls for Aimee, listening from Nashville.” I would be listening, intently, to the radio station on my boombox/stereo, making sure my fingers were on the ready. You had to press “record and play” to get the tape to record whatever was playing on the radio for the mixed tape in the making.
Sometimes I would be able to capture the song within half an hour to an hour. Sometimes it took longer. But on those nights after a call to the radio station was placed for a request, I seemed to listen more carefully to every single song introduction by the DJ, as well as the opening sound of each song. If I was not paying attention, I would surely miss it. And no one wants a mixed tape with part of the song cut off, for sure.
I realized recently how if I don’t stay in a constant state of listening for Papa to speak to me, I am going to miss many of His messages.
Terry and I were out of town recently, and traveling through this COVID world is no easy feat, as you all well know. We do not eat inside restaurants, still; we do carry out/curbside. We wear our masks, everywhere, we practice social distancing; so being on the road and finding places to eat, things to do safely, had some challenges, to say the least. One day when we were getting ready to leave, the hotel where we were staying had a laundry room for guests. I decided to go wash all of our clothes before packing and leaving the next day.
There were only two washers and two dryers. For the entire hotel. And this hotel was fairly large, so you can imagine what high demand there was.
One of the guests was ahead of me, and the maintenance workers were repairing one of the washing machines. The guy said to me, “If I were you, I wouldn’t go back to your hotel room. You should wait for whoever has their clothes in that washer and then use it. Between our group of people and people from the Army here, these are in hot demand.” I thanked him and decided to take a seat inside the little room, once the maintenance workers left. A little time went by and the girl who was using the washer came, took her clothes out and put them in the dryer. We small talked for a moment, then I put our clothes in, set a timer on my phone and returned to the room with Terry.
When the timer went off, I walked back over the laundry room and waited for one of the available dryers. One seemed to have a broken timer, because the entire time I waited, it stayed at “60 minutes.” The other stopped, so I knew the girl would be back for her clothes. During this time, I sat there praying. Terry and I have some changes coming up, and our greatest desire is to reflect Jesus, no matter where we are, no matter the situation, no matter what. I prayed for God to use this new chapter in our lives to be a way for us to bring glory to Him. I prayed for my writing to return and for me to honor Him in every word I speak and every word I type. I prayed that everywhere we go, we will share God’s love … if even through a smile. I prayed to be sensitive to the needs around me and to extend love and grace.
While I was praying and thinking, a young girl who was with the Army came in and said, “Are none of these available?” She let out a loud, frustrating groan, and I said, “No, I’m still waiting on the person who has their clothes in that (pointing) dryer to come get them out so I can put our clothes into it.” She groaned angrily again, then stormed out of the room. (Not wearing a mask, I might add).
Shaking my head and wondering why someone needs to be so pissy with a stranger, I was somewhat thumped with the reminder from Bob Goff, “Everybody Always.” In other words, we are to show love to everybody, always. Not just the warm, fuzzy, sweet people … but the difficult ones, too. “But she is clearly an angry elf, God,” (making reference to one of my favorite movies, “Elf,”) I prayed. “I think it’s best for me to just sit this one out and not poke the lion.”
But I was convicted, again. I had literally been praying for opportunities to show God to everyone we encounter. Several more people came in and asked about the availability of the washers and dryers, so I knew I needed to wait patiently for the first girl to return for her clothes, so I could place ours in the dryer. I ended up waiting about 40 minutes. In the last 10 minutes or so of my wait, the “angry girl” appeared, again. “Did they ever come back for their stuff?” she asked me.
“No, they still haven’t returned.” Then I felt the nudge again. “If you would like to leave your bag next to that washer where my clothes are, I would be happy to start your laundry for you, once I take mine out.”
As I said the words, I thought, “What in the world am I doing? This girl has been nothing but angry and grumpy. Why should I offer to do anything?” But I knew The Holy Spirit was nudging me to break down my own walls to show the love of God through her own walls.
“That’d be great,” she replied. “Just toss them all in there,” she said, as she dropped her laundry bag by the washer and stormed out.
Just like listening to the radio, focusing on every single detail so I would not miss my song request; we have to be in tune with God, to hear His calling. We will not hear an audible voice, but the more time we spend in His word, and in prayer with Him … we know when He is nudging us.
I didn’t offer to start that girl’s laundry for a, “thank you,” or a, “that’s so nice.” In fact, I didn’t want to say or offer anything. But because I had been specifically asking God to show us opportunities for us to show His love … God showed me, “Alright then. Love this girl who is acting unlovable.”
People are hard. People are difficult. People are mean. People are snarky. People are jerks.
We aren’t called to fix them. We are simply called to love them.
We never know what’s going on in someone’s life. A brief moment in passing might help the softening of even the hardest parts.
"The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'” - Matthew 25:40
We have to listen intently, and watch with laser focus for the people Jesus places right in front of us … and simply love them. We don’t have to be sucked into their nastiness or bitterness or toxic behavior. But if even for a brief moment … we are to show them God’s love.