You see let me explain...
For years my family would drive all the way down Street Road to Bensalem Baptist church...every service, Wednesday night prayer meeting, Stockade (young men group) on another night, three services on Sundays (prior to cable when Disney was on Sunday nights but not much else...kind of blows your mind kids). We were constantly going up and down the same stretch of road for the 5 years we attended there prior to Davisville Baptist Church.
It was a dismal traffic light to traffic light commute to attend services and learn more about God and our faith.
I remember reading and seeing the same graffiti near Route 1 on a tunnel/overpass bridge...it appeared one week and I noticed all of the writing on the way to church.
This one stated: "God I went a new job."
Hmmmmmm....I'm only a fifth grader but even I knew this message wasn't quite right.
We all want things from God though...throughout life...sometimes we ask for things or we cry out to God...because the desperation is that nobody else can help us at that point. Staying present in these painful places stretches our hearts in ways that fleeing never will...and so we call out...or graffiti our requests up to God. I imagine sometimes we just write them out from the honest pain in our souls.
I wondered...who wrote this message...what do they look like? Are they homeless? Or simply under employed and desperate for help in life? Are they a man or woman? Did they "want" a new job....or was the message correct?
went definition: Went is defined as to have gone somewhere in the past. (verb) An example of went used as a verb is in the sentence, "I went to the store yesterday," which means that I traveled to the store yesterday.
The problem with asking something from God for the past is that he is the God of the present and future. He lives in both places for each of us...the past is filled with regrets and would've, could've, should've...He walks with us through the present...through our wants--and even our "went."
I wish I had the actual photo of the bridge/tunnel....I'm not certain why it represented more than a passing thought for me?! Maybe it was simply a long arduous commute past some people I didn't understand and who scared me because of their needs. I deeply wanted to graffiti over the graffiti...change the one letter so that the want...the deep desire for something was accurately reflected...as if God needed the words spell checked in order to know the heart of the requester.
The deep truth I've just realized today is this person spelled it all out to God...made their wants and prayer need out there for all to read and see. I had hoped God would answer and the person would come back and write at some point "PS--Thanks for the answer God"...but that never came.
Was the request ever answered? We won't surely know on this side of eternity...
What I do know is that graffiti or no graffiti God is honored by humble broken cries of honest brokenness laid out before him. I have seen it in my own life and the lives of others through painful experiences. I guess if I could go back today and set up a late night spray paint message of my own it might look like this:
And that says enough...the rest should be us being the hands and feet of Jesus so that our message from our mouths matches the message of we live....walk the talk.
Was the prayer ever answered?
"God Knows"
... did they get a new job?
"God Knows".
...if I had a job to help someone--did I help a person?
God knows....
It's mostly God...and a pinch of us doing what's within our power to do....but the heavy work is always the miraculous...God Knows...
