Hello Awesome and Imperfect Beautiful Being,  (Yes, I do mean YOU!)

How is your week going?  

Do you ever go out in the world knowing you’re not at your best, believing you won’t run into anybody else . . . and then the Universe laughs?

Back on June 18, 2021  I posted “Precious and Unique, or Just Odd and Smelly?”.  It was about being caught looking my worst when hoping to accomplish an errand without witnesses.

I contribute prayers for a group of people I work with at retreats, and a prayer I wrote this month was based on that experience.  Apparently a friend of mine, who’s a pastor, liked it and has asked me to do a talk at her church based on it (yikes!!)  Even though it’d be terrifying to do it, I really hope it works out.  

And hopefully you’ll at least get a smile from this!

I’ll be honest with you – it doesn’t always occur to me to look in a mirror before I walk out the door.  Or even, sad to say, at times to remember to have showered first.  Or, more likely, I DO know I’m a mess but think, ‘Oh, I’m just going to the post office after hours, no one will be there so it won’t matter what I look (or smell) like.” 

But then I’ll go out in the world and, perhaps, lock my keys in the car.  With my wallet.  And phone.  And there’s no choice except to ask to borrow someone else’s phone to call for roadside assistance.  

I wish I could say I learned my lesson the first time that happened  (or even second  . . . or third . . . well, you get the picture)  but I’m fairly certain that somewhere in the distant past I inadvertently signed up for a lifetime membership to God’s Humility Program, and He never forgot.

A couple of months ago I drove to a secluded place to stroll.  I forgot how bad I looked, smelt, and forgot to grab a hat to cover my messy hair, so when the place was inaccessible I went to a public walking path.  I was on the phone to a friend, my Sister Of Spirit Pam, and since I was walking my (patchy-fur-missing, underweight) pit bull and my hands were busy with him I tucked the phone into a piece of clothing where it wasn’t visible to anyone.  And then proceeded to walk, talk, and laugh, in public, with no one knowing about the phone.  

(Please, do NOT imagine THAT picture.)

So imagine my surprise when a (perfectly sane, intelligent, well dressed, and probably smelled clean, too) woman walked up and started talking with me.  

(As far as I’m concerned, she earned the award of “Least Judgmental Person EVER”.)  

When she started confiding about a problem she had I told her that my friend could hear her, but since she probably thought Pam was imaginary it didn’t bother her and she continued to vent.  

When she was done I took a chance and asked if she’d like my friend and I to pray for her.  

You should have seen her expression!  Apparently it never occurred to her imaginary people could pray, too.

While pulling my phone out of it’s hiding place I was SO sure God was going to use this for His entertainment purposes and disconnect the call, and there’d be no evidence of a real friend at all.  But thank You, Lord, Pam was still on the other end of the connection and the three of us talked a few more minutes about faith, and then prayed together. 

Dear God, thank You, thank You, thank You for the opportunities you give us to be a conduit of Your love and Grace to others, for we know that’s our ultimate purpose here on earth.  May we, with ever increasing frequency (and humility), allow You to lead us to be at the right time and place even without our awareness of ‘why’.  And may we recognize those moments, in the moment, to share You no matter what we look – or smell  – like.  And PLEASE, Dear God, have the other person stand up-wind of us if it will behoove them!  Thank You (I think) that You use us, even at our worst.

In Jesus Name, AMEN! 

Yes, God!  Amen!