God will provide.
I’ve heard this saying a thousand times over the course of my life. I’ve heard examples of this saying, stories about how God has provided for others, but I never knew what it meant until recently.
Let me rephrase that: the saying never APPLIED TO ME (or so I thought) until recently.
This blog post is part of my series called Every Day Miracles. Today I’m talking about Miracle #2: What Should I Do, Lord? (My Last $20).
For the last couple of years my grandmother’s health has been seriously declining. She’s had a speech impediment, low energy to the point of lethargy, and overall poor health that has led to depression-type symptoms; more recently she’s been battling severe eczema, a case so bad her legs were cracked, bleeding, and seriously inflamed. She was in pain and often wrapped up both legs in ace bandages—from the tops of her thighs all the down way to her feet.
Praise God, she is doing better. It required a major diet change (she’s now gluten free) and lots of prayers, but it has been worth it to see God lift her up and out of the misery she was in. She lives a couple of hours away from me, in a town set along the Gulf Coast of South Texas, and after I had convinced her to go gluten-free, I decided to drive down there for a follow up visit.
Just as I was coming into the city limits, I realized I was low on gas. I exited off the highway and started to veer right, toward the gas station…but something caught my eye off to the left: two people standing beneath the highway’s underpass. Or, one person was standing. Another was seated in a wheelchair. I’ve been doing ministry work with homeless people around San Antonio, and I could tell—with just that brief glance—that these people needed help. Whether it was money or food, or even just prayers, the Lord convicted me to help them.
Pulling into the gas station, I checked my wallet. All I had was $20 cash. I knew I was short in my bank account, too, and I was out of the apples and oranges I normally keep in my car for just such purposes. If these people turned out to be homeless, as I suspected, I knew I wouldn’t be able to walk away from them without (at the very least) giving them something to eat. That meant I would have to buy food inside the convenience store, and that wouldn’t leave me much money left on my debit card for my own immediate need: fuel.
To complicate matters more, I had a 140-mile drive back to San Antonio on Sunday, then a full workweek to contend with before payday. I knew this before deciding to make the drive down to visit my grandma, and I’d been planning to use the $20 cash to get me through until my next paycheck.
All of these things were bubbling up and rolling around in my head. I was thinking about my situation logically, and the logical explanation was that I needed every dollar possible (both in my bank account and in my wallet) to get me through till payday; and yet, somehow I felt compelled to give it away, especially that twenty-dollar bill.
What do I do, Lord? I pondered. He knew I was running low on money, so why would He want me to give it all away? Not as a figure of speech, but for real. Literally all of it. And why would he want me to run out of gas right at the beginning of the work week? Because that’s exactly what was going to happen if I bought those people food and gave them my last $20.
I couldn’t figure it out, so I compromised: “Okay, Lord,” I said as I pumped a few dollars worth of gas into my car—just enough to make it through the weekend. “I’ll go take those people some food, and I’ll leave the cash here. If I still feel convicted to give them the money after I meet them, though, I’ll come back to the car and get the twenty bucks.” That’s the absolute best I could do at that moment. And, I’ll be honest with you, I figured those people would be so overjoyed with food that I wouldn’t even be worried about giving them my last twenty bucks.
That is, until I met them.
Dominique, Angela, and Scott were all sitting quietly beneath the underpass as I made my way over to them. They watched with wide eyes, likely wondering who I was and what I wanted. Turns out Angela was the one who was disabled. She had frizzy, coppery-colored hair and was dressed in summertime clothing; though, she was still sweating profusely in the Texas heat, and I couldn’t shake how sad she seemed looking up at me from her wheelchair. Dominique was tall, blonde, and had the warmest smile I’d seen in a long time. He was a strapping young guy who didn’t really seem to know God but was intrigued by talk of our Heavenly Father nonetheless. When I asked Dominique if he had a Bible, he answered honestly that he didn’t and (to my pleasant surprise) eagerly accepted mine when I offered it to him. Scott—with his scruffy beard and well-worn baseball cap—was probably the shiest of the group. He didn’t seem to know what to make of me at first, staying quiet as he gauged me and my message.
I think my genuine interest in their situation must have taken all of them by surprise, to be honest. But by the time I asked if I could pray for them, they all seemed to let down their guard and let me in. This may not seem like a big deal, but it’s huge. Doing homeless ministry, you quickly discover that some people—no matter what you give them or how you try to help them—aren’t so welcoming. It’s not their fault, really. They’re ill in mind, body, and oftentimes spirit, and there are lots of demons in their lives and even in their midst. I don’t know how Jesus did it. He loved people so much, despite their afflictions. He was never afraid, and He never doubted.
I have doubted, and I have been very afraid—my next blog post is about one of the scariest experiences I’ve had thus far in my walk with God, as a matter of fact. But I wasn’t scared at all with this ragtag trio I met on the way to my grandma’s. And you know what else? I didn’t feel even an ounce of doubt, because as soon as I met Dominique, Angela, and Scott, I felt what Jesus surely must have felt for all the poor souls He encountered: pure, unwavering compassion.
I hadn’t brought enough food for everyone (Angela’s husband showed up on a bicycle shortly after I began praying for them), so I returned to the gas station, bought a couple more fresh fruit cups, some cold bottled waters, and got change for my twenty-dollar-bill so I could split it up amongst them and another homeless man I spotted across the underpass.
Then I gave that money away.
Fast-forward to Monday. I was back in San Antonio, and I was once again running out of gas. The low fuel light on my dashboard was lit up, the needle was slipping toward “E”…I was NOT going to make it through the week, but then the most incredible thing happened. While I was at work, I received a strange call from a research facility in San Antonio. “Hello, Miss Evans,” the lady said. “I’m calling to inform you that your friend Ruth listed you for our refer-a-friend program. I’m just calling to let you know you have a $25 Valero gift card here waiting for you. You’re welcome to come by our office today and pick it up.”
Talk about a WOW moment. My mouth tumbled open as my eyes lifted to the ceiling. “You’re good,” I said, totally amazed by my God and His incredibly awesome power. I kid you not, this was THE most amazing epiphany I’d had so far in my walk…to realize that God knew—HE KNEW—I was going to be okay, that I would make it through the workweek without running out of gas, and that’s why He convicted me so strongly to give away what I had–because He knew I didn’t really need it! Heck, He might’ve even been the one who set the wheels in motion for that gift card. My friend Ruth had listed me for that program way back in June. This was already September when the facility was suddenly calling me, and right when I needed that gift card the most!
God is so incredible. He is so good and kind and oh-so-merciful. He is my HERO.
What about you? Has the Lord ever compelled you to do something on faith? What happened? I’d love to hear your story. Please feel free to comment and share below.
Thanks for following along with my Every Day Miracles series. Later this week I’ll be talking about Miracle #3: Offer Him a Ride. This particular story delves into a scary moment of obedience, where I was doing what God told me to do but still felt a tremendous amount of fear and doubt. These are common feelings that many of us have, and I’m very excited to sort out these emotions through that story. 🙂
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A QUICK WORD ABOUT MY MISSION: I am still $10,000 away from my full and final fundraising goal. In order to continue my ministry and go with my squad to Central and South America, I must raise at least $3000 more toward that final goal prior to Launch. Please, if you have been considering giving or if you’ve given before and have considered giving again, please click SUPPORT ME! on the left-hand side of this page. Your donation is tax-deductible, and it’s going to support a great ministry that’s really making a difference in the lives of those less fortunate.
If you know any local businesses that would support my ministry, or if you’d like to help me with a fundraiser, please let me know.
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Until next time, folks! God bless you! May Christ shine His radiant light on you!
