The Audacity to Argue with God!

Byrn Dairy returnable glass milk bottles.

Once again it is time for another Grocery Story. Today, I was thinking about another quick trip made to our local grocery store. It was a Sunday morning, approximately ten years ago. I had gone to church for worship team practice. Shortly after practice our youth pastor's wife came up to me asking if I could run to the store for her. She was in need of something for the youth class. I grabbed my keys and headed toward the car. It was only ten minutes before the service was to start. I needed to get back quickly. I made the short four block drive to the store, parked the car, and headed across the parking lot. Making my way to the store I discovered my choice of footwear that day was not wise. I picked out some really cute laced-up heeled boots. I love the way they looked with my outfit that day. I loved how tall they made me feel. However, I didn't like how they made my feet hurt. Walking toward the store, I glanced around the parking lot. Perhaps, to get my mind off the blisters forming on my toes. Looking to my right I saw a man with crutches parked in the handicapped parking spaces. He was reaching into the trunk of his car to retrieve four, returnable glass milk bottles. I remember wondering to myself how he was going to carry those milk bottles into the store with crutches. They aren't very light. That was going to be a job. It was then that God spoke up. It was clear in my mind. "Megan, you need to help him with those bottles." (Why He even had to speak to my heart is beyond me. I should have known what to do the minute I looked at the man.) Now mind you, I was a woman on a mission that day. Church was starting in approximately seven minutes. I needed to get what I was sent for and get back. So my inward response to God was. "I don't have time." Taking a few more steps, again the message was clear. "Megan, you need to help him with those bottles." Apparently, I was struggling with my desire to be my own god that day and I remember thinking to God, "I don't have time for this. My feet hurt and if I help him I am going to have to walk all the way back there. I need to get back they are expecting me. Church is going to start soon."  (Can you believe me? I was telling God being at church was more important than being the church!) Continuing to walk toward the store I felt the weight of God on my shoulders and His presence all around me. "Megan, you will help him with those bottles." It was not a request that time. It was a command. Frustrated, I relented and turned around, my feet hurting inside my really cute, not so practical boots. However, I wasn't frustrated with my boots or with God for sending me back there. I was frustrated with me. Who am I to question God? What was I thinking?, Nothing going on in my life is more important than the will of God! I made my way back to the man. He was still struggling with the crutches and the heavy glass milk bottles. I walked up to him and asked him he would like me to carry the milk bottles into the store for him.  I remember his response vividly, "Oh, you don't have to do that." I remember my vehement response vividly. "Oh, yes I do. Please allow me."
Taking the bottles from him, I made my way back toward the store. The bottles were as heavy as I remembered. The plastic handles were biting into my hands. I thought to myself. How would he have ever managed to get these into the store on crutches? Shame filled me. I was willing to, disobey God's directive and let this man suffer because I was on a mission. Really? Isn't my whole life a mission for God? In the space of those few moments I was broken and humbled.
Once in the store, I left the milk bottles at the service counter for return. I told the woman at the desk that the man would be by to collect his deposit, and went about my errand...... suddenly, not in as much of a hurry. As I came back around the first aisle, heading for the check out, I saw the man at the service counter. What I heard him say made me feel so small. He told the woman at the counter "Some beautiful angel brought these in for me. God bless her."
Wow, I didn't deserve that blessing that day. I wanted to cry. If only he had heard the argument I was having with God on the inside, he might rethink his blessing.
I paid for my items and made my way back to the car. My feet completely forgotten, my reason to hurry no longer important.
The lessons I learned that day changed my life. I learned that I was not submitting to God in the way He wanted me to. I seriously needed to work on that. I was reminded that everything we do is part of God's mission, whether it is running to the store on a quick errand or stopping in the middle of that errand to help one of God's own. God wanted me to lose the fight and do His will. God won as He always should. From that day on submitting to God took on a whole new light.
So, what is the point in all of this?
Today as you go about your day keep in mind, your mission is not what you have on your "to do list" or in your mind, but what God puts in your life. His "to do list" is so much more important than yours. Don't look at the interruptions in your life as something negative. Look at them as opportunities to be God's missionary. When these things happen to you, keep in mind that He picked you for those moments. Consider it an honor, not a burden, to be called to do His will.

 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”

 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.  A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”