When your life is in a transition period and your seasons change, it can feel like you are flying in a tornado where everything seems jumbled.

Focusing on the tornado instead of God is not beneficial and does not change your circumstance any faster nor brings peace of mind. (Ask me how I know!) My last few posts have been about suddenly quitting my job with no plan and being thankful for the community God has given me. The last few weeks had also shaken me up quite a bit when an old friend happened to call me up. I met him at my customer service job a few years ago, and he is over six feet tall, covered in tattoos, and has gold teeth. From the outside, he is extremely intimidating and scary looking, and why we should not judge a man by their appearance. One day he walked into our building singing ‘Ain’t Too Proud to Beg’ and shattering whatever image I painted of him in my mind. It is one of my favorite stories and cracks me up when I think of it. From then on, we tested each other only to find out we were brothers and sisters in Christ.

We text each other now and then but have not spoken to each other in a while. Joey called “out of the blue” last week while I was having a hard time with life, and while I tried to be chipper, we were not two minutes into the conversation when he asked how I was doing, and I started crying telling him about quitting my job and do not know what I’m going to do, etc. He is an extrovert, and we were on the phone for two and a half hours! I became a different person in two and a half hours, not because I talked to Joey. I became a different person because, for two and a half hours, Joey was being Joey telling me all kinds of his crazy life stories and talking about Jesus, reminded me of all kinds of scriptures, and had me look up scriptures. We were conversing about God. My eyes were taken off of my circumstance and onto the King of the universe who controls everything. He had me laughing and then witnessed him drive through and give the people at Smoothie King a difficult time because he found out they no longer do their $5 Friday promotion. He was giving the poor cashier a lousy time in a jesting manner about it, and I was cackling, imagining this six-foot man with a thick Cajun accent, full of tattoos complaining about his fruit smoothie prices. He conversed with the girl for a few minutes and then asked if she had a relationship with Jesus.

It changed my day, and it was because I was on the phone with Joey while he was being Joey.
“Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” – Ephesians 4:32

One thing about him is I know he always has my back, and he has proven it. A few years ago, I texted him that while I was riding my bike, these kids in my neighborhood shouted obscenities at me (because it’s easy to bully someone from a distance), and his response was, “Where you at?” as if we were going to be in a bicycle gang and beat kids up for being kids. The idea of a giant man with tattoos circling the block on bicycles with me to intimidate some neighborhood kids still cracks me up and makes me feel good knowing I have someone I can call at any time.

All of this to say, I went to a house church service over the weekend to hear him preach. I wasn’t there five minutes when a preacher quoted Revelation 19:11-13, and I started weeping. There is power in the name of Jesus, and I left a different person.

Because of this, my eyes were back on Jesus, and I was not as worried about my life.

They talked about ‘the fearful’ not being able to enter the kingdom of heaven and discussed the meaning of fearful: faithless.

Faithless is what I became, and it did not happen overnight. It has been a slow fade of not spending as much time with God as I used to. I spent hours reading and studying, writing down scriptures to remember them better, and always putting Him first. Somehow, life crept in, and God was not first in my life anymore, with two jobs and no time. I focused on providing for myself and figuring out a job path instead of putting my security in Jesus. My heart has been filled with selfishness, and I was putting more and more emphasis on “me” and trying to figure out my life. Yes, life is sometimes difficult, but we cannot isolate ourselves during it, which is so easy! When I get like this, I have learned the best time to serve someone. I became excited again about where God would lead me next, and it was not my job to worry about where it would be or what He would have me do.

Yesterday, I was working on a project and decided to go for a bike ride while mentally working through how I would fix it. While riding a few streets away from my house, I saw an older lady in a red car slowly drive past the stop sign and lit up when she saw me. With the look on her face, I realized she was lost and probably needed directions. Knowing how I’ve felt lately, I could empathize. She rolled her window down when I pulled over on the other side of the street (because of stranger danger and you never know these days).

I quickly learned she did not speak a lick of English; the flip side is that I do not speak any Spanish. I have been studying Spanish in Duolingo, but my current level of expertise is “Buenos Dias” (good morning) and “Yo como manzanas” (I eat apples). While I have been conned for money by an old lady before, this was different and I could not leave this lady alone. The way my personality is I quickly became committed to helping this lady, and neither of us could understand ANYTHING the other was saying. Because of Duolingo, I picked up on “Calle” (street), “Necesito” (I need), “Non telefono” (she did not have a phone), and a couple of other things. I tried the translate app, but that went nowhere fast. 🙂

I asked where she was going, and the address she gave was nowhere near my neighborhood. When I looked it up on my phone app she needed to get across the river (20 minutes away)! This lady was genuinely lost, and I am currently unemployed. I had time. I could not communicate well enough to send her somewhere else and did not want to send her somewhere else, knowing they may not help her! After a while, I did the only thing I could think of and started calling friends I knew who spoke Spanish. Ryan was on the phone with his mom, and I did not tell him it was urgent. The only one to call me back quickly was a Spanish friend from high school who is one of the kindest, most beautiful people I know, who worked her butt off and now owns her beauty salon (the last part isn’t relevant, but just a nugget of how amazing she is!).
“Rita, I am talking to a lady who is lost in my neighborhood, but I don’t know Spanish! Can you help me?”

I put her on speaker, and they spoke a bit. I heard Rita say, “Oy and Rio” and I knew that meant she was far out of her way. and I finally told Rita, “The only thing I can think to do is have her follow me to my house so I can get my car and she can follow me to the address!”
“Oh my God, Aimee”
“I’m committed to helping! Tell her that, please.”

I heard Rita start a Spanish sentence with “Aimee” and the lady looked at me and said, “Si! Si! Si!”

I called my dad to tell him the situation as summarized as I could, to which he responded in the best dad way possible, “Oh my God, Aimee! I’m coming with you.”

“Mi padre is coming with me”

We got in my car, and the lady followed us across the river. I glanced in my rearview mirror to see her waving her hand. I pulled over, and I had to call Rita again to find out she needed gasoline (!!!) and something about her husband. We led her to the gas station. My dad brought her cash inside to pay, pumped her gas for her, and discovered through HIS phone that she knew where she was now. She looked more relaxed, and my dad called me out to say she could get around by herself now.

I understood “Pagar” (to pay) and “esposo” (husband) and realized she wanted us to drive to her house so her husband could give us money!

I waved my hands and said, “Non!” I flung my arms open and asked if I could have a hug. I felt like we’d been through a war together, and she smiled big, and gave each other a huge hug. I told her the only thing I knew from what a lady at my customer service job taught me, “Que Dios ti bendiga” (God bless you!). Her eyes lit up, and we waved each other goodbye.

I felt so awful not being able to communicate. The only thing I could logically do was bring her to her location. Had I been working at a job, I would have missed this entire story and blessing. God works in mysterious ways. Do not worry about your life. He has our paths laid out for reasons He knows.

“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers. Thereby some have entertained angels unaware”

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