What difference does it make anyway?

Some of you are reading this from work, some of you are trying to read this at home with little ones all around, some of you don’t have a job and are waiting for a call, some of you may be reading this from a hospital bed, or in the University cafeteria,  and probably most of you, if not all of you at one point has thought, what difference does it make anyway?

This reminds me of a time ( yes I said that with a 100-year-old voice), when I was waitressing at this awful Greek restaurant. I was a single mom, trying to support my new baby, and I was working long hours, I had no vision for anything else other than the now and making the right tips. It was the end of the evening, the end of my shift, when a middle-aged man came in on his own and sat in a booth, and ordered a coffee: no baklava, no spanakopita – a coffee, that was all. Ugh, these are really the worst customers…but he really wasn’t. He began to ask me a few generic questions about my life, and what plans I had for the future, when he realized I had none, he began to speak encouragement. “You are a really special young lady, you have a big future a head of you, you can do so much more….and I don’t remember the rest cause it was 100 years ago!” 

It was such an odd thing for a man to say to me, without hitting on me, (story of my 20’s). He said what he did, paid the bill, tipped me well, and left. Like a stranger in the night.

I look back now, and I know, without an absolute doubt that no one stops in a Greek restaurant at closing time for a coffee, unless you are one of the annoying Greek owner’s relatives. This man was sent by God to speak destiny into my life (even if I totally blew it for the next 4 years after).  If you are friends with me, you probably notice that I often chat up the waiters and waitresses about their life plans, I learnt that from him.

That aside, that man made a difference, his words will always be etched in my heart, like a prophetic seal that set me aside for God’s destiny.

This reminds me of another time, when I sat on my bed and I prayed –  I needed money. I was a single mom of 2 kids now, and I needed $50. Enough for bread, milk and diapers. 1 hour later, there was a knock on my door and a friend stood with an envelope and said “God told me to give you this”….. OH come on! You know what was in it!

Everything we say, do and give makes a difference. EVERYTHING! That gesture of money wasn’t just a provision of blessing, but it showed me that God cares, that he hears my prayers, that we can hear from God, that obedience is a gift, and that messed up ol’ me mattered. All that for $50 bucks?! Yup, all that, because it matters.

We have got to stop walking through life with our heads to our ugly belly button rings, no seriously take it out, its gross! We need to lift our heads and realize whether you’re a stay at home slave, er um I mean mom, or a garbage man, or a retiree, or a fashion model, everything matters. You matter. OPA!