answer it

Tonight I had the privilege to be used. I had an internal battle for a few minutes, but then I said, "okay, I'll do it!"

Now, I don't hear God's voice. It's not a big man voice coming from the heavens. It's a gentle pull on my conscience and spirit. He uses all of us different, but this is how he uses me. I know it's him when I experience a couple of things. Typically whatever is being asked of me is not something I would normally just go do. When it is understood what's being asked of me, there's usually an internal battle I have with myself. There's been times I fight it and other times I've flat out ignored it. And then there are times I answer it.

So, tonight, I'm outside working in the yard. I had already trimmed my yard, front and back. I typically start mowing in the back and finish in the front, but tonight was different. For some odd reason, I wanted to start in the front. After trimming, I mowed the side... worked my way to the front. Within only a few lines left to mow, I happen to look up and see an elderly man tugging a suitcase out of the trunk of his car. I've seen him and his wife a few times. They are here visiting their daughter who lives on the other side of the street from me. I don't know their names, but I believe she has a disability. Her parents are probably in their 70s or 80s as he is walking with a cane.

So here I am mowing... I stop, walk down the street and casually ask, "is that the only bag you have?" He stopped in the driveway with his cane and red suitcase.

He said, "No. There's a couple of jackets and another bag..." As I walked closer, I could see the items along with two gallon ziploc bags of all kinds of medications. With ease, I grabbed up the items, closed the trunk and walked over to the man who had not even made it half way to the front door yet. I took the suitcase from his hands and followed him up the steps.

"You have your hands full now," he said.

"Yes, sir... glad I could help," I smiled as I laid all the items inside the door. I was thinking I sure hope someone is helping out my parents when they need it since I live this far away.

I walked back to my yard and finished mowing the small patch. God was tugging on my heart. The old man wasn't what caught my attention in the first place. In fact, I had been looking at this lady's yard all evening. Every strip I mowed and faced her house, I saw her yard and how the crab-grass was about three feet tall.

A few months ago, my next door neighbor blessed me by mowing my back yard. One morning I had gotten up and looked out and realized someone had mowed my lawn. No note, no call and no bill. I was ever grateful and finally after a few days realized who had done it and told him how blessed I felt. The day he had mowed was the day I had spent in Tulsa with my family at the hospital. Dad was having a new pacemaker and there was just a lot of things going on at that time and mowing wasn't at the top of my priorities. It wasn't out of control grass, I just hadn't found the time to mow.

I looked up at my neighbors yard again.

"Go mow her yard."

"Oh, man, I'm tired and I still need to mow the back."

"Go mow her yard."

"Augh... then, she might want me to mow her back yard too."

"Go mow her yard."

"But it's getting dark soon and I won't have time to finish mowing the back and I won't have time this next week to mow. I'm going to mom and dads tomorrow; get home probably too late on Monday. Tuesday, Natalie starts soccer..." I go through the whole week and see that it's going to be Thursday before I have a chance to mow and realize by then it's going to be so tall...

"Go mow her...."

"Okay, okay... I got it. I'll mow, but Lord ~ please... let her have a small backyard. please?"

I grabbed some gas from the shed, filled up and push my mower down the street to this lady's house and begin to mow. As I was mowing her front yard i saw that her backyard was already mowed. I started laughing ~ I'm serious! "Thanks, God! for the "small backyard" request!"

I was laughing and shaking my head. I'm about half way through the yard before the lady came out with a smile on her face and the way she was holding her arm and walking with a limp, I could tell at some point she had had a stroke. She was thankful and warned me of an extension cord in the yard. Then she told me that her mother had mowed most of the back yard, but that she shouldn't be out there mowing and asked if I would mind finishing it up. I told her that it was no problem ~ that I would take care of it. ...she was grateful.

I laughed to myself again. Her backyard was huge ~ about the size of mine if not bigger. Her fence backed up to an old church building and their field. But the area that needed to be mowed was very small. Her mother had mowed the majority of it already. "Thanks, God, for the little backyard," I said as I wrapped up the ten minutes of mowing in the backyard. As I was walking away I could see there were still a lot of trimming that needed to be done.

"Now trim."

"But.. you said just mow."

"When you mow your yard, do you use the weed eater?"

"Yes."

"Then mow it like it's your yard."

"Augh, okay."

So, I trekked back to the house, put the mower in the backyard; grabbed the weed eater line and went to trimming.

I got home just as it was getting dark. Needless to say that my backyard is not mowed, but when I looked at the back, it seemed like it wasn't as tall as the front yard before I began. It can wait until Thursday.

Now, I'm telling you this story not because I want a pat on the back nor an "atta-girl". I'm sharing this story because I'm so tickled that God used me and blessed me. I don't have money nor riches, but when I saw my neighbor tonight I realized that God has blessed me with something today that they do not have; strength.

There have been times that I ignore this tug. But, you know what? God doesn't punish me for not responding. Oh, but when I do answer it, he blesses me with a peaceful satisfaction.

Lord, thank you for giving me strength to answer your request. Thank you for using me and tugging at my spirit. Use the situation tonight to be a light to my neighbor. I don't know her situation, but allow her to associate my efforts as a blessing from You today! Thank you for all you've done for me. In Jesus precious name.