"If you think Scripture is telling you what you want to hear, take a long, hard second look."
- The Ancient Mariner
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Have you ever experienced unexpected kindness from a stranger? If you have, tell us about it in the comments.
This one is a bit tougher than my other "Tell Me Something Good" posts (#1 and #2), but I'm hoping to hear some good stories.
I've got a good example, from this 2005 post recounting our Hurricane Rita evacuation adventure.
Just then we heard the voice of an angel. "Do you need help?" It was a local Brenham girl, who's name I never got. She had walked up to Andrew and Kyle. "Can I help you?"
I walked over. "Yes, please. Is there any gas in this town?"
"Yes. I just got some. There's a line, though."
I could have hugged her. Our angel led us through backstreets in Brenham to a gas station that had two lines of cars leading to it. It was on its last thousand gallons, but we got our gas. And that's when I knew we were going to make it to San Antonio.
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Trackback URL: http://thinklings.org/bloo.trackback.php/4673.
Comments on "Tell Me Something Good #3 - Stranger Kindness":
2. Just Thinking
- 06/26/2008 10:02 am CDT
The first event that came to mind was my car accident. A tractor trailor decided it preferred my lane on the highway and switched without looking to see that I was right next to him. Needless to say, it was a pretty horrific accident.
As I sat in what was left of my car waiting for an ambulance, the silence was incredible (the busy highway was at a standstill as pieces of my car covered all lanes) and time seemed to have stopped. My only prayer at that moment was "God, please send somebody". I knew there were people around, I just didn't know if anyone would come up to me or not.
Soon a woman approached and started talking with me. (There was nothing else she could do at that point.) Then she knelt and prayed for me. She didn't know if I was a believer or not and she didn't ask if she could pray for me. She just prayed . . . out loud. I thought, "Of course, God would send one of His own family!"
Shortly after that I was rushed off by helicopter to a trauma center. In my shock from the accident, I wasn't communicating much and I never found out who she was. But just standing by me while we waited for help meant the world to me. And she has no idea that her arrival was a direct answer to my prayer. I wish I could tell her, but I guess I'll just have to leave that up to God.
3. Shrode
- 06/26/2008 12:00 pm CDT
I've done that before, been the first to stop at an accident, called 911 and prayed with the people til help got there. More than once.
We all should.
4. Bird
- 06/26/2008 10:43 pm CDT
Thank God for common grace. I can't recall any huge instances of stranger's being helpful, but there have been plenty of small things. It all makes such a difference.
5. MzEllen
- 06/27/2008 12:17 am CDT
A few years ago we took a vacation "out west" and had a conversion van so we took everything but the kitchen sink (but we DID take a dry-sink and counter)...
One of the things I packed was 2 extra gallons of coolant. As we were driving up Colorado National Monument I was talking to the kids about how God has put people in our way to encourage and help us. At that moment, we came upon a couple in a little car with the hood up and the radiator steaming.
And here is us, with extra coolant...and we told them what we had just been talking about and how good God was that He allowed us to help them out.
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(I like this series. :) )
I could tell multiple stories related to driving from Kansas to Illinois in somewhat less than road-worthy cars with six kids and having car trouble and nice people helping us. But the story I really want to tell was something I observed and it has always stayed with me.
About 10 years or so ago I was at a conference in Chicago, but I stayed with my brother in Kenosha, Wis. and rode the train in each day (saved on hotel cost). One night on the train back there was a woman with a bunch of little kids and she realized her train pass wasn't going to get them all the way to their stop. She talked to the conductor (or whatever he's called) and he didn't have a solution for her. Then a business man offered her the unused portion of his pass -- apparently he had enough left on his pass to get him to his stop and then some. So her problem was solved.
I've always remembered this little scene of common grace. If you've ever ridden the train in Chicago, you know that most people keep to themselves. The woman and her kids were in a completely different social strata than the businessman. I think they were of a minority. The businessman's stop was in one of the wealthier northern suburbs, if I remember correctly. And he very kindly offered the rest of his train pass, with no fuss. He worked it out with conductor and everything was fine. I thought that was neat.