Going Bananas and Getting a Blessing

Last Sunday I was humbled by seven bananas!

After church last Sunday, Kayla and I ran by the grocery store to pick up some bananas. Tyler, my son, was sick at home with Tanya, and we needed to keep his diet very bland. We needed bananas. No big deal...or so I thought.

So, we went to the produce section, picked out about seven good looking bananas, and headed to check out. As I was visually trying to determine the best checkout line to enter I reach in my back pocket for my wallet and stop! Great! No wallet!

If there was a day that I would forget my wallet, it would be on a Sunday! I usually get dressed right before leaving for church and many times forget my wallet on my bathroom sink. Most of the time I forget my wallet, however, I would realize it before even getting to the store.

What was I supposed to do now?

I look around to see if there is anyone I know that I could ask to borrow some money. No one! And that was weird, because I always see someone I know at this store...and especially right after church on Sunday! Ahh! Now what?

As I walk back toward produce I think to myself with Kayla a little confused, "Do I put the bananas back, go home, drop off Kayla, and come back?" I'd hate to do that!

I stop for a second to consider other options. An open checkout line comes available. The checker comes to the end of the isle, looks at me (bananas in hand), does the little eyebrow thing that asks without words, "Are you ready to checkout, sir?" I decline his offer shaking my head and think to myself, "No...I'm the idiot who left his wallet at home and is standing here like a moron with some bananas in one hand and a daughter holding the other asking me what we are doing!"

I tell Kayla that I forgot my wallet and I'm trying to figure out what we can do.

At that point, I considered asking a complete stranger! It was a crazy thought as I lingered on it for a second scanning the isles looking for prospects. Fragile, white-haired, church-suit guy with tons of stuff in his basket? No. Too long of a wait. And when would I ask him? After he started checking? Pass.

Larger, middle-aged, barely-making-it lady buying a lot of food in regular clothes? Pass.

Last option: Younger, 30ish-mother, buying cupcakes in the speedy checkout lane? Okay.

I begin to go toward that checkout lane again and think, "What am I doing? I'm about to ask a complete stranger to buy some bananas? Ahh! What? Am I going to get her number and send her a check for one dollar of bananas? Do I ask her for her address?"

I stop after a couple of steps. "This is too much! I'm just going to put these bananas back, go home, and come back."

Then, on my way back to the produce area AGAIN, a new perspective crosses my bald head brain. I consider it for a second, turn around, and continue my thoughts having decided what I need to do. No more flinching!

I get to the speedy checkout lane behind this younger, dark-haired lady who is now on the phone. "Great! Do I interrupt her?" Before I have time to chicken out another guy gets in line behind me. "Oh, man! Now I'm committed!"

I look toward the back of this lady's head, lean my head over to the side with my eyebrows raised trying to make eye contact. I wanted to get her attention without saying anything. No luck. Without touching her I say, "Excuse me, mam?" She turns to me with her phone still to her ear, takes a quick glance at my awesomely beautiful redhead holding my hand, and non-verbally gives me permission to continue.

With a weird "I'm an idiot!" smirk on my face, I reached into my empty back pocket and said, "I know this is going to sound weird, but I forgot my wallet at home. And..." I paused for about a half second to take a breath and hold up my seven bananas. "...I was wondering if you would buy my bananas for me."

Silence.

The several seconds of her silent processing time seemed like four hours of humiliating torture! I lower my bananas a little. Then she says somewhat confidently as she hangs up her phone, "Sure! Throw 'em up there with my stuff. No problem!"

I put them on "the conveyor belt of shame" right on the divider thing that separates one shopper's stuff from another's. She turns to talk to Kayla a little as she waits for her turn. I'm at a loss for words. I muster up a quick yet audible, "Thank you so much! I feel weird!" She soon turns her back to me as she attends to getting out her wallet to pay for her things (and my bananas!).

"Where do I stand?" I thought. "Do I go around to the front where the bag people do their thing?" No. "Do I bag her few groceries for her as a sign of my appreciation?" Uhh..no way! That would make it worse for all parties involved.

Right then the checker finished ringing up all her things, leaving my bananas straddled on the divider. He looks at this lady and asks her, "This is where your stuff ends, right?"

"Are you kidding me!?" I think. "Why do you have to make this torture worse than it needs to be? Did you hear me ask this lady a few moments earlier to buy my bananas? Certainly everyone in the entire store heard this CRAZY MAN ask a complete stranger to buy his bananas! And, just in case someone missed it, you had to ask her to clarify for the masses my incompetence again!? Thanks, dude!"

I contained all those feelings as I looked at the floor.

She told the guy that she was paying for my bananas. He rang them up and gave her the total; she paid and started gathering her stuff. No one touched the paid-for bananas. I waited until she had cleared everything before I reached over the counter to take the grocery bag containing my seven bananas.

This whole time, I'm wondering what is the appropriate thing to say at the end of all this. A simple, "thanks" came to mind. So did an "I appreciate your generosity." Those seemed weird in the moment and superficial. The only thing I settled on was, "the Lord bless you."

I wanted to convey the Lord's involvement somehow, without being all crazy about it. My mind considered the times that I'd heard that from others. It came from mainly strangers that I'd decided to help out in various ways. I always dismissed it as some kind of unnecessary formality. I would tell them what this lady told me after I said it: "Oh it was no big deal."

This experience has many chapters of lessons that I will share for a while. These lessons started as I went to the car. I told Kayla that she just witnessed how God blesses people through others. I communicated to her that this lady displayed the heart of Jesus in a small, yet powerful way! "Her gracious generosity," I told her, "is a loud testimony to our abundantly good God!"

Have you ever been in a position to experience God's generosity, even in a small $1.07 way?

A Small Prayer

At the end of this semester, Father, allow us the opportunity to see your kingdom in our small, seemingly insignificant actions. Nourish our spirits enough to reach the depths of your love in offering a smile. Help us to imagine and discern new possibilities for living fully alive as we give away our attention. Provide us relief, Lord, from our constant conformity to busyness. And strengthen us as you transform our lives according to your business. We trust you with every small, yeast-like, kingdom-oriented action. Amen.

Wed Class-Summer 2006

I have been crazily busy lately...hence why I have not posted in a LONG time.

At the Student Center, we have ended on a positive note. I think that the classes we went through this semester have been good. The feedback has been encouraging.

I am really looking forward to the summer though, specifically on our Wednesday night class. As I sent out feelers to see what students thought, I was somewhat surprised by the positive response. This is a good thing.

We are going to be having a class entitled "The Story of God in the Bible." I have found that so many students recognize stories in the Bible. Generally, they know the characters and what happens. Once you get into specifics, they haven't read the stories enough, if at all, to know little nuances. With that said, students (and maybe even many adults in our churches) cannot tell you how all the stories are connected. They know Moses and they know Joseph, but they don't know the relation between the two. Why are the people of Israel called the Israelites? Why is the book of Ruth important for Israel? Why did the exile happen? What is the exile? Where does God fit into all these discussions?

These are the types of things that will help us as we read the stories on our own time. If I pick a book in the Bible to read, what is happening around it to make it the book it is?

Ultimately, I want the students to be able to tell someone the story of God in 5 minutes. This is what God has done. I want the students to be able to tell how they fit into the story of God as well. Here is where I am. There is definitely an evangelistic element to what I want to happen in the class. We will see how it goes.

Who is God?

This is an interesting question. If someone were to tell me who God is, where would this person begin? God is truth. God is life. God is all-powerful. God is an indescribable being. God just is. There are so many places to go.

One of my classes (Systematic Theology II) asked this same question. Because it was an academic question, I guess we had to put it in academic type form, so we asked for the whole semester, "What is befitting to say of God?" When we started, I naively thought we were actually going to answer this question. In reality, just in asking this question I was challenged in ways I didn't think were possible.

Consider this: If I want to speak of God only in ways that I find in the Bible (something I want to do), then I am forced to use so many different images. I can't narrow it down to just one. God is a consuming fire. God is my rock. God is my fortress. God is a shepherd. God is a farmer. God is the comforter. God rides on clouds. God is a warrior. The list could go on and on.

One might say, "Well, God is all of these things." True, but how can being a warrior and a peacemaker coincide with each other at the same time. "Different times and circumstances demand different manifestations of God." Okay, but if I am to tell someone that God is x or y, then this person will just dismiss this as being how you view God at this particular time. I think that more can be done when speaking of God.

I guess the modern age has brought about the idea that we can reduce God to short, simple propositional statements. Jesus' parables have one point to make; the stories in the Old Testament have a driving force on which we focus. There is so much more here that we are missing. Life is not as simple as many preachers and teachers seem to make it.

If we learn to speak of God in story (something we find throughout the Bible), we might start getting a glimpse of who he is. Stories are complex. Stories carry ambiguity with them. They don't comment on every aspect of life, but they are helpful in telling us what kind of people we are. May I propose that God is like the man who accepted his youngest son back from the dead having squandered all his wealth in wild living? May I propose that God rescues his people like those he rescued from Egypt? May I propose that God destroys his people who have turned away from him countless times? May I propose that God will restore his people as he restored Jesus? All of these things imply larger stories that give us glimpses into who God is.