I had a very cool thing happen to me recently. It is a great story to share with you guys, but it was definitely God reminding me of my mission and me failing.
A few weeks ago, I was out on the road for a short two day, two concert trip and an hour in a half from the first church, I blew a tire. Usually not a big deal, but that day….a disaster. First off, it wasn’t my truck I was driving, it was my son’s car. I knew the two concerts I was heading to were smaller and I didn’t need a lot of equipment, so I thought I would save some money in fuel and use his car instead of my truck. Anyways….when I went to change the tire and put the spare on, it was flat!!!!
I got on my phone to see if there was anything around me, and of course there wasn’t. I walked a mile east, came back and walked a mile west and the only thing I found was a elderly man that wished he could help, but just couldn’t. We have AAA so I called them and they couldn’t do anything until 7-8 that night. By this time, enough time had passed that there was no way that I was going to get to that day’s concert, so I had to call and cancel. I have NEVER in 41 years of doing this ministry, had to cancel a concert for such a DUMB reason!!! A stinking tire!!! The Pastor was cool about it and we have already rescheduled, but……a tire?????? AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!
As I sat along the road waiting for AAA to come, a young guy pulled over and asked if he could help. I told him what was going on and he offered to take my spare up the road to his shop and put air in it. Ten minutes later he came back and said, it had a hole in it! At this point, it starts to get funny. He then offered to go further up the road and get a can of “fix a flat”. We put that in the tire, drove to his shop to put more air in and I was set!
Now here is where things got cool and where I failed. I am not one to get mad and loose my cool at all, but I was just sad I had to cancel the concert and just wanted to get on the road, get to my hotel in Ohio and just end that day. I thanked the guy that helped me and started to get into my car when he began a conversation with me that turned into him , sharing the Gospel with me. WOW!!!! I told him I know Christ and shared with him what I do in sharing the Gospel as I travel.
What hit me as I drove away an hour later because we were just talking, is that I failed. I failed because my frustrating day made me miss a opportunity to share the Gospel. Yes, the kid knew Christ and shared with me, but if he didn’t know Christ, would I have missed a opportunity to share with him because I had a bad day? Absolutely!! I just wanted to leave that area, get to the hotel and end the day. But because I was thinking of me…I would have missed a great opportunity to share my faith and the Gospel in a perfect setting.
Wow. God gives this ministry and me so many opportunities to share His love and we do. We see hundreds of people coming to Him and beginning relationships with Christ each year. But what hit me hard and where I failed that day, really opened my eyes to how many other opportunities I maybe missing.
Was it a frustrating day? Yes. But was it a huge eye-opening moment for me? Absolutely! I thank God for always having my back as we travel and share His love, but I also thank Him for showing me my failures so I can grow and be stronger in anything and everything He calls us to do.
What about you? In a great day or a frustrating day, would you still do what God has called us to do? Would you share His love and the Gospel, or would you fail like I did? No matter who you are and what you do, I think we all have work to do in our lives to be more like what God really wants us to be.
Thanks for your time!
Chiz