Lent 2013, Day 41: “Something” Always Works Out

A gaggle of college girls were ahead of me yesterday at Starbucks, apparently attached to the tour bus around the block. They were oblivious to the world, chattering among themselves and parking their large suitcases in such a way that they blocked movement by the rest of us.

At first, I was a bit annoyed. I generally can walk to Starbucks, get coffee, and be back home in the time it took me to reach the counter, let alone get my order. Were they really that unaware of the rest of us? Were they really that self-centered?

Then I took a reality check, back to 1977 and the Daytona Beach spring break trip I took with four college friends, specifically, the end of that trip. Thanks to a big wrestling tournament, it wasn’t hard for us to catch a ride to Cedar Falls, Iowa, from where the bus for Daytona would depart. We all figured “something” would come up and we’d be able to find a ride back to our college from Cedar Falls the following Sunday afternoon.

But when we returned to Iowa, “something” hadn’t come up. There were no offers of rides anywhere near Brookings on the ride boards. We were too young to rent a car, and none of us had a credit card anyway. Commercial buses wouldn’t get us back for days and were too expensive. Hitchhiking was out of the question for some of us, especially since we would have had to split up (and there was the matter of all those suitcases).

Finally, Debby called her parents. And they came, driving five hours to Cedar Falls and then turning around immediately and driving us all five hours back.

I’m embarrassed to say I don’t remember offering to pay for gas or sending her parents a thank you card or flowers. We were young, and had been sure “something” would work out. And sure enough, it had.

I thought about that bit of kindness as I waited for the college girls to get their luggage out of the way. There’s certainly arrogance and self-centeredness in thinking “something” will always work out, but there’s also a confidence and trust place I wish I had more of today. Because, really, it always does. God has a way of helping us through the worst situations we find ourselves in, self-inflicted or not, through expected and unexpected agents in this world. And so, this is a long-overdue prayer of thanks to William O. and Melitta, for being angels to this fool.