HE WILL KEEP YOU SAFE
It was the summer of 1969. I was new in town, a hippie from
the San Francisco Bay Area, and now I lived in a suburb of Chicago with my
parents for a couple of months before college started. I was a “flower child”
of the 60’s, which meant tank tops, long skirts, and combat boots, among other
things. I was 19. I got a summer job as a lifeguard at the local pool and hung
out after work with the other lifeguards, going to bars in nearby towns to
party. It was fun. I didn’t make any permanent friends—too shy really, and not
very good at socializing with new people. But I was attracted to this older
guy—the “bad boy” guy who stood apart from the crowd.
This guy was different, intriguing. He liked to play pool.
So, a group of us went to a bar to play pool almost every night; or as it
turned out, he and his male friends played pool and I watched, till the early
hours of the morning. He paid attention to me and that was a lonely time in my
life, so if someone paid attention to me, I was all ears, all attention, all
“gaga” over him. We never had sex but still there was this attraction, this
connection. Then one night I decided for some reason not to go out after work.
I got a call from one of this guy’s friends about 8 o’clock
that night, telling me the guy I liked really wanted me to come meet him down
in the parking lot by my work. I was totally into it and started to get ready
to go out. Then I stopped. I had this niggling feeling that something was
wrong.
I didn’t know it at the time, but it was the Lord giving me
a warning. I figuratively felt a cement wall rise up in me. In my hippie-love
attitude I had been totally ready to hop in the car and take off to town to
meet him, but this odd feeling, like a cement wall encasing me, stopped me. I
couldn’t go. It was weird, but I just knew I couldn’t go.
The next day, I donned my lifeguard swimsuit and off to
work I went. After work, one of my coworkers pulled me aside where no one else
could hear. He looked all around to make sure no one was near, then whispering,
he told me the story: “I just wanted to let you know that guy showed up last
night at the parking lot with a gun! He was looking for you. He was in a hurry
to get out of town and head cross-country. He said he was planning to take you
with him! He was really mad when you didn’t show up but he didn’t wait long
till he pealed outta here.”
You can imagine the flip-flops my mind did with that! Well,
there you are. I was dumb, but still the Lord took care of me and kept me safe.
He kept me from showing up that night. I don’t know what would have happened
had I gone, but it wasn’t going to be good. The Lord loved me when I was dumb
as dirt! Ephesians says:
“Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of
this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that
now worketh [is working] in the children of disobedience:
“Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past
in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind;
and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
“But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love
wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us
[made us alive] together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved)” (Eph. 2: 1-5).
The thing is, that at the time, I was already a Christian,
but I didn’t understand so many things in the Bible and I really didn’t know
how to apply Bible things to my everyday life. I certainly didn’t know the Lord
like I do now. But what I learned by experience is that when we truly
love the Lord, no matter how much Bible we know or don’t know, His love for us
is unconditional.
I know for sure that Proverbs 29:25 is true: “Whoso putteth
his trust in the Lord shall be safe.”
And though I’ve walked through the valley of death and
gotten myself into trouble many times, “I will fear no evil: for thou [Lord]
art with me [always]” (Ps. 23:4).
The Lord has kept me safe (and smarter now too!) and He
will do it for you. Love Him, trust Him.
“And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and
with all thy strength: this is the first commandment” (Mark 12:30).
Love, Carolyn
Get my first WINGS book
on Amazon if you haven’t read it yet. IT WILL BLESS YOU AND ME
TOO!
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