Out of Gas
Did you run out of gas last week?
My wife called me from Toccoa last Tuesday as she was coming home from work. The gas warning light had just come on in her car, and she could not find a gas station that had gas. I began calculating how far she should be able to drive before she would run out of gas. Fortunately, as she got near Gainesville, she found a QuikTrip with gas.
Later that evening I decided I’d better fill up my car. To my surprise, all three of our nearby gas stations were out of gas. What a weird feeling to pull into a gas station and see signs that read, “No Gas
As I drove back to my house, I reflected on the thoughts and feelings I was experiencing: frustration, helplessness, no control, anxiety, and worry. As I pulled in my driveway, I realized that these thoughts and feelings were the same ones I had heard voiced to me by men and women I’ve met on my mission travels.
In a remote village in Zambia, I listened to a man who told how recent droughts had destroyed their crops and dried up their well.
On a mountain side in Nicaragua, I sat with a mother who was raising her three children in a thatched hut. She pointed several hundred feet down the mountain to a small spring head where she went each day to collect water in plastic containers. My partner and I made the trek down the winding path to see the trickle of water flowing out of the ground. As I thought about this lady making this trip back and forth each day carrying water to her family, I remembered her saying that some days she gets to the spring and there is no water.
In downtown Atlanta, I spoke with a 43-year-old man who had lost his job after he injured his leg in a motorcycle accident. Rather than sitting in the comfort of his apartment eating a meal, he now slept at a homeless shelter downtown, relying on the Atlanta Mission to help him get back on his feet.
The next morning when I woke up, I decided filling up our second car with gas really wasn’t a necessity. In fact, as I thought about so many others who are waking up wondering where they will get their next meal or a cup of water, I felt more like the man in Jesus’ parable who kept building bigger barns to store all his goods rather than sharing with others. Moved by Jesus’ words, I decided to write a check to Atlanta Mission.
I invite you to join me in supporting organizations who are on the frontlines every day assisting those who are needing more than a tank of gas. Here’s a few terrific organizations that are serving people in need in our local area and around the world. How about writing a check for the amount it takes to fill your car or even more?
Who would have thought an evil ransomware attack on Colonial Pipelines would lead me to consider the needs of others? Truly, God can bring good out of bad situations.