Monday Musings (and the re-po man)

I so need Monday's. I think I have even posted it before. Like some people want their Friday or Saturday to get here, for me it's Monday. Of course I do not have the added thing to do of clocking in at work on Monday unless I have scheduled an appointment with a client. My weekends are generally so packed and not with things to amuse or refresh but normally it is with thingstodo (albeit usually with people I at least like and many times love),that by Monday I am  exhausted. (I will interject that this weekend I just had was bust out exciting and refreshing! But it is not the one I am writing about for now) Well I can examine all that and figure out where the driven-ness comes from but that is not the reason for this post.
It was a Saturday night while I was standing in an excessively long check out line winding all the way into and on down the frozen food isle with a basket full of sale matched with coupon items, when a young man stepped behind with with just 2 cans of yams. He was on an errand for a friend. I learned that after I offered to let him ahead of me. "You will be checked out before I can finish unloading my cart." It was the evening before Easter so the place and lines were packed with last minute shoppers. He declined for the time being but somehow started talking to me about his job. Alot about his job. Which he loved by the way. He is the owner of a Repossession Company. He does not just order people to do his bidding but does much of it himself. Even went on to tell me how he finds these low livers who don't pay and just takes the car if its in a parking lot without the person even knowing until they come out and find it gone.

The truth is I had been at one time the recipient of a re-po man visit in a situation that really was unjustly handled. I felt pretty wounded by the experience knowing we had been making very large payments which evidently were not being applied correctly but he was not the person who could actually do anything about that. He was just "doin his job" unsavoury as it may have been. Later we learned the car was sold for less than the value and we were still supposed to pay up! Yeah a painful mess. In spite of all that I was speechless pretty much talking to this second generation re-po man.



That was unfortunate and something I am praying about because I wish I had an on time word for him from God. I kept casting around in my mind about what to say to him that would not seem canned or rote religious words but rather prick and awaken that place in him to the things of God. I became very aware that weekend how many people seem to be sheep without a shepherd. I did not know what to say to bring it around. I mean Jesus knew. He would take the woman at the well and identify the real issue beneath the conversation and turn her into the town evangelist. I want that skill. I want to hear the person, hear from God and speak. Or He could find Zaccheus watching from a tree no less, go eat with him and His manner and words so engage Zacs spirit and heart he vowed to return in multiples what he had cheated others out of. To be like Jesus...
As a bit of closure, God has brought us through those awful years where it seemed locust were eating everything we put our hand to as in the book of Joel. Where we needed to trust the God of our hope to sustain us, be our vindicator and restorer. His promise from Isaiah 61:7 is worth reading and holding on to:
Instead of your (former) shame you shall have a twofold recompense; instead of dishonor and reproach (your people) shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double (what they had forfeited); everlasting joy shall be theirs... and much more if you read on in the amplified version. And that is what we have found through our years. God is FAITHFUL! He can be trusted even in times of devestation that seem to come in ocean like waves. He never leaves us nor forsakes us. His delay is not necessarily His denial, but in there is the working of all things together for our good because we love Him and are called according to His purpose. He is building our character. Our foundations must be strong to hold those big things He has planned for us. And we will be continually amazed at what those things are!