verbingnouns

The Lord Provides

I guess it's the looming birthday. Maybe it's the recent conversations I've had with a few people about the past and the future. I suppose it could be too much interspection. Whatever it is, I've been thinking a lot about the future and what it might hold for me. Okay, I'll admit it: I've not only been thinking about it, I've been worrying about it. What am I going to be doing 6 months from now? What about a year from now? Five years? Should I plan to buy a house in a few years? Should I move away from Monroe? If so, where? All these questions have been on my mind lately.
But God has a way of sending strange messengers into my life. A few weeks ago, I got a note from someone who, I'll be honest, I didn't really want to hear from. But that one little note that I hesitantly read, reminded me that worrying does nothing and that God has always taken care of me in the past and will continue to do so.
Then yesterday, an amazing thing happened: I was sitting in my office working, when this little old man came in. I figured he was looking for someone else and needed directions to their office, but instead, he came in and sat down at my desk and started asking me questions about his mortgage. I was annoyed at first, because this man was not a customer of my bank and I had Important Work to Do. As he started telling me the details of his case, I figured he was either lying, crazy, or just badly confused. But I listened. He told me all about how he had paid his home off in the 60's, but had refinanced to save his business when some of his employees at the car dealership he owned had stolen several cars and left him high and dry. "But the Lord provided for me then, and I know He will now," he said.
He is 80 years old. He told me his life story. When he was 5, he really wanted a bicycle, but knew his mom couldn't afford it. Then he saw a bike in the trash pile in "the white neighborhood" where his mom worked for $2.00 a week. He asked the lady of the house if he could have it, and she said he could for $1.50. His mom scraped the money together for him, and he got his bike and repaired it. "The Lord always provides," he reminded me.
He went on to tell me how becaue he had that bike, he was able to get a job. For 3 years, he rode that bike back and forth from home to the car dealership where he worked from the time he was 8 until he was in his mid-twenties. He started out at $6 a week: a sum he could barely comprehend. He began washing cars and later learned all about mechanics, so he could help provide for his mother and sister.
I could go on with more stories - he did - about World War II, and now, taking care of his wife, who is ill - and every part of the story, I would be thinking, "there's no way I could deal with that," he reminded me (with a big smile on his face) that the Lord provides.
This is the kind of story I'm usually really cynical about. Working in a bank has made me really skeptical of sad stories, because, frankly, a lot of people make stuff like that up to tug the ol' heart strings and try to get a loan that -this time- they're going to pay back, even though they've never paid back any other creditor. This man was genuine. He wasn't telling me about his trials to make me feel sorry for him. He was rejoicing at the hard providences that had made him a better man.
Unfortunately, his mortgage problems were nothing I could really help with. I gave him some advice that will hopefully get things straightened out for him. He left thanking me for all my help. Little did he know what an encouragement he was to me. He was right - when I look back over times in my life when I just couldn't imagine anything good would come out of it, I can now see an abundance of good things that have come about.
Mr. Fox was right - the Lord always provides. May He continue to provide for Mr. Fox...and for you and me, too.