Last week in Sunday School the reflection question was something along the lines of "Have you seen God's divine intervention in your life?" I can answer that today with a yes. Absolutely.
As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to take pictures of things (whether it be point and shoot or DSLR) and then write about them. So this morning on my way to work I put my camera in the car. I had only needed to go into work for a little bit because I needed to use the scanner to scan in my homework. Got to work and scanned and turned in homework and headed back home. I told myself that I wanted to go to the car wash today. One of those self-serve kind of places. Insert some coins, get some time, spray down car and boom... clean. Except I had just done that recently and I didn't want to wash my car. I just wanted to use the vacuum portion in the back. Since I've had my car (June 2008), I have not vacuumed my car. It hasn't gotten too dirty, but after many trips to the beach and a few flag football seasons with cleats and softball, it was time to do some vacuuming. So here I am coming back from work thinking, "Oh, I'll stop by the vacuum place." Except I chose not to. I had my work clothes on and it was fairly hot outside and I decided I'd come back later. I'm lazy.
I get home and decide to skate to the beach to do some reading. I hop on my skateboard and think to myself, "oh, I could take some pictures at the beach and then write about them. I had some topics in mind already and I knew I could find pictures along the way." Crap. If you remember, I had brought my camera to my car earlier in the day and I left it there. I wasn't about to bring my DSLR to the beach to get sand all over it. Lame sauce. Maybe another day I thought. Perhaps I just wasn't meant to take pictures today.
I come back from the beach a good deal later (also had some pretty good clam chowder in a bread bowl, but that's a different story) and I decide that maybe now is a good time to go to the car wash to vacuum my car. It was evening time now and it wouldn't be as hot. I had hoped there there would be lights around the vacuum area.
I pull into the car wash happily noticing that there are lights. "I'll be in and out of here in no time," I thought to myself as I made it to the back of the car wash place where the vacuums were located. I noticed a man on the left most vacuum just walking around. We exchanged looks and I went along and prepared my car for its cleaning. I started taking off the floor mats and banging the sand off of them. To my surprise, my car actually was a lot cleaner than I thought. I have these all-weather floor mats so they are a rubber material and are relatively easy to clean. I started taking them out and by the time I made it around to the passenger side (I started from 12 o'clock and worked my way around counter-clockwise), the gentleman that was on the left most vacuum came up to me and said hi. I said hi back and he handed me his business card. The business car said something about a hair design place and I noticed that his name was Roy. Roy told me that he works right up there (he pointed right next to the car wash place, 2nd floor) and that if I ever needed a haircut, I should come to him. I told him that I was getting my hair cut for a pretty good deal right now and that the price would be hard to beat. [Thank goodness for Mai and Michelle and Dynasty Hair Salon off of Inglewood]. He asked how much I paid. I told him it was 10 dollars. Roy told me he charged 16 dollars but it would be well worth it. I asked him why.
Here's where the story gets interesting. Roy starts talking about how he's not just a normal hair cutting place but that he cares for his customers and he does this special scalp treatment that is supposed to be good for the body. He seems like he knows what he's talking about so I nod and smile and he continues. He went to Europe for some time to get training and now he's back in the United States taking care of people's hair. He seemed like a very legitimate man, very cordial and very nice. I asked him questions here and there and he had a response. My biggest takeaway from his hair cutting speech was that he's not just some place that customers go and get their hair cut, pay, and leave. But rather he has this philosophy about taking care of the body and soul. So I guess he uses these "all-natural" products when he washes hair afterwards. Apparently people come in from San Diego, Palm Springs, Northridge, etc, just to come to Roy. I wouldn't doubt it. He seemed like he knew what he was talking about. Then he said something very interesting to me.
Roy (paraphrased): "I take care of my body because I want to live very long and be happy. I don't think we're meant to be here just to not be happy, so I do what I can to be happy."
I immediately felt like God was saying to me, "Jon, why don't you interject here and say something." This was odd. We used to have this contact evangelism back at Michigan where a group of us would go out and spread the Gospel. We had these pamphlets that was called "Two Ways to Live" that we'd talk to. I did that a few times and even once at Wayne State during our D-UP trip. But have I talked to a complete stranger out of the blue about God before? No. This was rather new. I held off for a bit, not really wanting to change subjects, so I nodded and he continued. Roy talked for a little bit and then he said something else.
Roy (paraphrased again): "A lot of people here don't take care of their bodies here and they suffer for it. I don't think we're meant to suffer. We're good people."
God (maybe also paraphrased): "JON, WAKE UP"
Ok then. I stepped in for a moment and sheepishly asked, "Roy... let me ask you a question, have you heard the good news of Jesus Christ?"
And here began a very interesting conversation. Roy had grown up in the Catholic church, but by the way he was talking, he did not practice it anymore. He even admitted that he didn't practice anymore. He told me that he didn't think we needed to read the Bible and that it was all in here (he said here as he pointed to his mind). I told him I disagreed and thought that it was very important that we read the Bible. He said he read it twice (once because his mom made him read it and once because he just wanted to read it as a story) and since then, hasn't read it. He said he believed he knew it all. I told him I don't think that's enough and that he wouldn't remember much if that was all he read. He begged to differ. I asked him if he's heard of Job (I was reading that earlier today). He said yes. I told him to tell me the story of Job. He thought for a moment and then said...."that's where God told him to kill his own son?" I chuckled a bit and said I think you have the wrong guy, that's Abraham. I told him he should read his Bible more often! He then said something about how the Old Testament was filled with a lot of negativity and didn't think it applied anymore.
We had differing views. Roy believed in a God... or rather... a god. I don't think it was the same God that I believe in, but he believed that there was a supreme being, a creator, a father. It seemed that he was jaded in the sense that he's seen what happens when people go to church. He was saying that people go to church, read the Bible, and then come out of it still calling people names, still cutting people off when they drive, still do all these bad things. I told him I agreed and that I thought that was unfortunate [Christians do get looked at as hypocrites a lot... that is pretty sad], but it's not the going to church and the Bible reading that did those things. It's the sinful nature within us. I asked him if he thought people were good or bad and he said good. We disagreed again and I told him I think we're all sinful, way back to the actions of Adam and Eve. He told me that God is love and that love is God. I agreed with him. He said that if God is love, then he'd only want the best for us and for us to be happy. I told him that God does want the best for us, but it isn't about our happiness, it's about God getting glory. Roy didn't believe that God could do things that wouldn't make us happy (example: putting Abraham through the thought of killing Issac).
It seemed that Roy believed that God is out there just to make us happy. We're to lead fulfilling lives and have money and success and be happy. I think he's mistaken and he's not seeing the bigger picture. We're here to bring God glory, and that's all there is to it. He seemed a very... new age-y, very spirit-y mentality. He told me that he believed people should meditate instead of reading the Bible. I told him I didn't think so.
At the end I asked if I could pray for him. He said, "you or me?" I told him that I would pray for him and he agreed to listen. I prayed that God would reveal himself to Roy and that God would remind us (both him and me both) of his love for us and in turn that we would learn to love him more and more. We said Amen and he parted back to his store.
God's divine intervention? As I left from that prayer back to vacuuming my car, (well, starting to vacuum my car) I realized that earlier in the day I had put my camera inside. I took out my camera with a smile and took this following picture.
Had I not come back later in the day and just went to the car wash earlier in the day, I would've not met Roy. Had I taken out my camera to go to the beach, I probably would not have put it back in. Then I wouldn't have been able to take the above picture and I wouldn't have been able to blog about it. Thank you God for the small reminders that you will work greatly in our lives. I pray that you would draw Roy closer to you. Roy seemed like he was a very happy man, but I pray that his happiness would be found only in you.
