Rolling Over in the Bank...and Other Adventures

I had a list to accomplish.  One of them was a stop at the bank.  I sat across from him discussing my options.  Banks intimidate me.  Mainly because I feel like I've just stumbled into the men's cigar lounge.  I mean, friends, I don't have any money to bank with.  Not bank, as in, things involving words like hedge and rollovers and strategies and stock options.  Is that even a banking term, that last one?  I'm about as lost in a bank world as I am in a car garage.  "Would you like to have your car rolled over, mam?"  I don't know.  Let's take it to the bank and hedge it in first.  I do things like make a deposit and feel especially snappy that my paycheck is direct deposit.  Look at me banking!

But, nevertheless, there I sat in the bank getting a 360 card and wondering what that stood for....like what about the other five days, was what I thought.  And all of a sudden I found myself asking him if a simple girl like me could actually do real banking with not very much because...and this is where my mouth got away from me...."as it turns out God is doing something in my life and I'm not sure exactly what it is but I think He wants to bless me and I want to be ready and responsible and a wise steward and I've always wanted to learn about these things anyway and is there someone here who could teach me how to start small as in really small and have you ever heard of Dave Ramsey?...."  It was here I took a breath.  His eyes lit up.  Yes, as a matter of fact, he and his wife have taken the Dave course.  And next thing you know he's asking me why I'm going to Denver and I tell him about Baby Bea and he tells me there's someone here who's boy goes to my school and well.....frankly, I left that bank feeling like Life had been left behind.  

I dropped by my school later to mix up bags of candy into a big, bright new orange bowl I got for the school store and take pictures and send them to instagram to let my students know I miss them and am thinking of them and looking forward to making small memories and caring about them.  There are some that I don't know well and ...when I see them in the hallway....my heart bursts  because I remember being where they are in life and I long to let them know I love them without even knowing them and I don't understand that except....except that God put that love there.

On the way out of the store, I lock the door and whisper His spirit to live there, to already begin working His peace ahead of time.  To work mighty in that little store, things we can't even ask or imagine...and not to stop with what I can imagine.  Break chains, soften hearts, bind up wounds, tie us together strong.  I pass two women I'd sat behind at church the day before coming into the school door and I nod and smile hello.  And then I stop.  And turn around.  They're gonna think I'm weird.  I do it anyway.  

"Excuse me.  I just wanted to tell you something.  Your worship yesterday?  In church?  It blessed me.  It made me brave to express what I felt too.  To lift up holy hands to Him.  Without regard to who thinks what.  Thank you for that."  They hugged me hard and thanked me for telling them and said they remembered me and what was my name and oh yes, you usually sat there and where have you been?  And so I told them honest that I was in a struggle for air and in danger of being a loner.  We will start watching for you and seeking you out, they told me.  And I knew it was His arm, pulling me close to safety.  

So these encounters?  These insignificant moments where I talk lots of words all together and take a chance that they won't be received?  Or that I'll walk away feeling alone or dumb?  End up being the times when every day stuff feels like seeds planted in my soul.  Like He really is everywhere around me waiting to be invited in.  It waters me.  I sprout new shoots and hope revives again.  

And I cannot wait to find out about banks.