I had decided to go to the 6:00 a.m. service at Faithful Central Bible Church today, but when I woke up at 5:00 a.m., it was raining, cold and dark and I was still tired so I set my alarm clock for a later time so I could go to the 10:00 a.m. service. On my way to the church, I saw a guy running down La Brea Avenue with his hand in the air as if he was trying to hail a taxi. It was not a taxi, but the bus which moved away from him to the middle lane and kept on moving down the street. I felt that I should give him a ride and I was not worried about being late for church because of it. I turned around and pulled up on his side of the street. I asked him if he was trying to catch the bus and he said, “Yes.” I asked him if I could take him to his destination. He saw the Uber sticker in my window and said, “Are you Uber?” I told him that I was not working and could give him a ride without charging him. He smiled and got into my car. He asked me where I was going and I told him, “I am going to Faithful Central.” I then asked him where he was going and he replied, “The same place.” We both laughed and rode on down the street, talking and laughing. When we arrived, he pulled out $10 and before he could hand it to me, I said, “I can’t take that, just do something nice for someone else, that is how I do it.” He asked, “Is that what you want me to do?” and I said, “Yes, that is how I do it.” He said, “OK and I want you to take this money. That’s how I do it.” I chuckled and accepted his money. We were walking through the parking lot to the church when he stopped and said, “Oh no, I think I left my phone in your car and then he apologized profusely while we were walking back to the car. I kept telling him not to worry because I needed the exercise. We both laughed. He got his phone and we walked back and entered the church with the choir and congregation singing. As I went to my seat, I was grateful that I was in the right place at the right time. May that continue to happen. As for the $10, I am going to get ten single dollar bills and keep them in the door pocket so that when I drive pass people on the street who are asking for money, I don’t have to fumble around in my bag and miss the opportunity to give them their dollar.
Tag Archives: discussion
Shaken But Not Broken
She hardly looked at me as she jumped into my car, slammed the door and said sharply, Go straight!” It took her one breath to tell me that as she kept talking on her phone. When I looked into the rear view mirror at her face, I instantly felt a sense of sadness. She was a beautiful girl, probably in her first year at UCLA. She had on brightly colored shorts and a summertime top with wavy blonde hair tossed carelessly over her shoulders. The weather was warm with a cool breeze and the campus was alive with people hurrying to get to their destinations.
I did not listen to her conversation, but the person on the other end of her conversation could not have been talking much as she rattled off a series of fast sentences drenched in a restrained panic. She paused long enough to bark another order, “Turn left here!” I continued to drive and I felt sorry for this young stranger. I wanted to tell her that it was going to be alright. I kept silent. The desire to tell her grew stronger and I dismissed it because she was on the phone talking, non-stop. When she released the call, I looked in the mirror at her face which looked like she had received the worst news. Her blue eyes probably sparkled when she smiled, but at this moment, they were sad…worried, and she looked out the window not seeing all the beauty that the day was dangling in front of her. Her voice softened as she said, “I am sorry, take a right here, please.” She must have suddenly become aware of the tone she was using to speak to me.
At the stop sign, I called her by name, “Amanda…” She did not hear me, too deep in the thoughts that had blinded her to her actions. She was on emotional auto-pilot. Again, I softly called her name, “Amanda…” When she looked at me, I looked her straight in her eyes and said, “It is going to be alright.” Our glance was constant as if, over her first response to doubt me, she was trying to see if I was telling the truth. I was not prepared for what happened next because her eyes instantly welled up with tears that rolled down her cheeks like they had been waiting for permission to fall. I clumsily grabbed a box of Kleenex from under my center dash and handed the box to her. She pulled several tissues out of the box and lowered her face into the soft pillow she had created in her hands. As soon as she dried her face, more tears fell and she told me that all of her classes had been dropped and she was devastated. It was her first year at UCLA and now she had to maneuver through life’s obstacles without the immediate cloak of directional protection from her mom and dad who usually stepped in to smooth things out for her.
She was going to the class to plead with the instructor to add her into the class. I told her that it was all going to work out for her, but that she had to believe that. I told her she was given this obstacle to make her stronger, even if it seemed unfair. “You will understand this challenge later, but for now. Go to the class and calmly talk to the professor. I graduated from here in 2012 and I can tell you that instructors add you when they say they are not adding anymore students and they make a way for you when you are sure they will not, but you have to ask them. If you have the time, splash some cold water on your face before you go to class. You are going to be fine, Amanda. Try not to worry too much.” She smiled at me and it was like the sun pushed past stormy clouds to change the look of the day. Her face changed, “Thank you so much, Teresa, you can just let me out at the corner,” she said in a tone that suggested she thought she had taken too much of my time. I smiled and took her right up to the building’s entrance. She thanked me again through a vulnerable smile as she hopped out of my car and ran up the stairs. I hope she remembers what I told her. She is going to be alright.
AAA Discusssion
Sitting in AAA:
Me: “I am an Uber driver so I can only wait until 5:00.”
Man: “Aren’t you afraid of picking up someone strange?”
Me: “No. Before I go out, I pray for me, my passengers, my car, our journey, the other drivers and passengers, people I know and people I don’t know.”
Man: “What about the drivers who commit those crimes?”
Me: “They probably don’t pray before they go out.”
What was priceless was the smile on the face of another man nearby who overheard what I said.
T.A.P. into the Possibilities 