Stopped On The Side Of The Road

Stopped on the Side of the Road

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

John 10:27

My friend Steve was driving on a local highway one morning when he saw a man and his beat-up pickup truck stopped along the side of the road. Both looked as though they’d seen hard times. Steve stopped to ask if the man needed help, but the man told him that he’d already called a towing company and planned to have it towed to a local repair shop. Since the situation was under control, Steve drove off and went about his day.

Later that day, Steve ended up driving by the repair shop, as it was located close to his home. He noticed that the same pickup truck he’d encountered that morning was parked outside, and he felt God nudging him to go in and pay for the man’s repair. Heeding this prompting, Steve stopped inside the auto-repair office and asked the man behind the counter how much the repair for the truck was going to cost. When Steve admitted that he wasn’t the truck’s owner, the worker looked a little puzzled, but he obliged and told him the amount. Steve then gave the worker enough cash to cover the cost of the repairs. The worker asked if Steve wanted him to tell the customer who had paid the bill, but Steve declined.

“No thanks,” he said. “Just tell him that I hope his week gets better.”

There’s a passage in the Bible where Jesus says he is the Good Shepherd and his people are the sheep who follow him. “My sheep listen to my voice,” he says. If I’m honest, sometimes it’s easy to ignore the still, small voice of God. When God nudges us to do something that takes us out of our comfort zone or costs us in some way, it can be harder to heed the call than to ignore it. Yet if we obey, he will work in and through us to bless others.

—Kristin

— Today’s Act of Kindness —

Ask God to tell you how you should bless others. When you feel nudged, obey.