Give your perfume away.

Let me tell you one of my good stories.

I was packing a suitcase this morning (no jibes, please) and was reminded of something that happened to me a few years ago on a morning much like this: packing a suitcase, rushing out the door, wondering if I will be able to get it all done.

So the story goes that I was a wedding planner at this time and was in the throes of my extensive traveling. For sure more than one suitcase a week being packed, and this morning was no different. I had to be somewhere that night, was running late for work that morning, had gotten back from a trip not 12 hours earlier, and was rushing around my apartment, to put it mildly.

If you don't know this about me yet, let me tell you: I love lipstick. Rain or shine, frantic or calm, I have lipstick on. Period.

That being said, as my hands are full of bags and briefcases and I am already ten minutes late in getting out the door, I pause a bit at my dressing table to---put my lipstick on. Because that's what I do.

Time ticking away still, there I stand, outlining my lips, getting it just right, when I hear the Lord say "Put that new perfume on...."

"But I am already late..." I said.

"Put that new perfume on," he said again.

Spritz. Spritz.

And off I went, as P.G. Wodehouse would say, "Down the stairs like a mighty, rushing wind." : )

But let me back up a bit.

The reason I was late to begin with was because there were men in my apartment putting new windows in. And obviously I had to make them coffee. I mean, it's the only thing a self-respecting wedding planner did at that time.

That being said, I also had moved my car to the street before they got there, giving them room in my driveway.

So the morning was not normal.

In an oblivious blaze, no doubt, there I trudged, past my driveway, across the street, pausing to try to unlock my car without strewing my belongings all over the road for the whole world to see when, not previously seen, a woman on a walk passes not 10 feet away from me, pauses, and says, "Wow! What perfume are you wearing?! You smell lovely...."

I am not kidding.

Blah blah blah, I tell her what it is and she proceeds in her exercising.

Depositing my baggage in the back seat of my car, I hear this small voice inside of me.

"Give her your perfume," I hear the Lord say.

"But I am late! We have already discussed this!!! And I love that perfume! I don't want to give it away!" I retort in a defiant mood.

"Give her your perfume," he says again.

Sigh.

High heels and all, I run back across the street, through my driveway, up the stairs to my apartment, back into the room with all the window-guys, snatch my perfume, blaze back out of the room, down the steps again, across the driveway, through the street, into my car----now only to have to zip up and down the streets to find this walker woman.

She was a fast walker. 8 blocks away, there I spotted her. 

"Ma'am! Ma'am!" I yelled as I rolled down my window and held out said bottle of perfume.

"Here," I said, "You take it."

"Are you serious?!" she looked at me with a quizzical brow.

I mean, let's be honest, I can guarantee you this has never happened to her before, nor will it ever happen to her again.

"Yes! I am serious! I want you to have it!" I said, kind of lying, but knowing he had told me to do.

"Oh my gosh! Who are you?! Are you new to town! I don't know you!"

Truth was, I was new to town, and I didn't know anyone. The town was primarily Catholic, and since I am not Catholic, I didn't attend church with them (which, really---that's how I meet people) and had therefore made zero connections.

Needless to say, we exchanged contact information and she says, "I will be out east this week, but will call you when I get back and we should get coffee!"

Whoa.

Did this really just happen?

I drove away thinking, "I wonder if she is a Believer---she seems really nice."

At work that afternoon someone was there from that town and I said to them, "Hey do you know SO-and-SO?"

The person stopped and goes, "Oh my. Yes. I know her. She has quite the story. And she has gone and gotten all religious, too. You two would probably get along."

Ha.

Ok, Lord, what is all of this about?

Two weeks go by and one day, she calls.

"I would love to meet up with you! I feel as if I need to know you!" she says to me.

Hmmmm... very interesting.

Meet each other we did.

Oh my goodness, Wolfies. 

A lovely woman, a woman who within 5 minutes of being with her my spirit KNEW that she knew the Lord. Maybe you could say the Spirit in each of us recognized itself...

And my co-worker was right, she did have a story.

Grew up in a non-believing home, she married a man, had babies with him, moved all over the country with him when, one day, out of the blue, he says, "I don't love you anymore. And I am in love with someone else."

And proceeded to walk out of her life.

If that's not terrible enough, things went downhill from there, and got really ugly.

Because after a while he realized that maybe he DID love her, maybe he DID want to keep their family together.

But, here is the problem: sometimes the "other woman" doesn't want you to go back to your family.

They have become possessive. They think they own you now.

And, if you don't agree with them---sometimes they get violent with you.

And sometimes restraining orders don't work.

And sometimes if they can't get to you (the one they had the affair with), then they will get to your family.

Sigh.

I don't want to tell you what happened.

I can't force myself to type it.

It was gruesome. It was disturbing. It was heinous.

I will only tell you this: one of their daughters didn't make it.

Sigh.

Sin is REALLY ugly, did you know that? And don't you ever think that your sin effects only YOU. Because it doesn't. In this case, the husband's sin affected him, his wife, the "other woman," his children, and most certainly--- the daughter whose live was taken from her.

Sigh.

As she was telling me this in the coffee shop that day, I think I just started weeping. No mother, no human being, should EVER have that kind of heart-ache happen to her.

In going against my theology, I would have understood if she was angry at God; and almost wouldn't have faulted her for it. She, of all people, had a good enough reason to. Yet. Yet, she looked at me and said, "But that's when Jesus met me; when I needed him most. He didn't make that person kill my daughter, so how could I blame him for that?"

Whoa.

A new Christian she was and she ALREADY had that kind of handle on how God works in this world.

I was blown away.

And then...as if that wasn't enough, she says to me, "You know, I was praying I would meet a Believer in this town. You are the answer to my prayer."

Whoa.

Whoa whoa whoa.

WHAT???

I don't think I could talk for the rest of the day.

I was the answer to HER prayer?!?! A woman who has known tragedy more than I hope any of you ever will. A woman who has known the comfort of Christ so deeply because the wounds were so piercing. A woman who has lived through all manner of the worst of humanity.

And I was the answer to her prayer?

Me. The girl who has to have lipstick on? The wedding planner who worries about being at the office 20 minutes late? The woman who disagreed with God about how my morning should have been?

I was an answer to HER prayer?

I knew then that I was not worthy.

What I can't get over is that, not only was I a blessing to her from the Lord, NOTHING ABOUT THIS SITUATION MAKES SENSE!!! As in, IT SHOULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED. I shouldn't have met her!

Let's just walk through all of the things that I thought were out of place that morning, which, if they hadn't been "out of place" then none of this would have happened.

1. I was running late. I don't run late. But I was late. Why?

2. Because my landlord had ordered new windows.

3. I made the service guys coffee. I didn't have to do that.

4. I had to move my car out of the driveway (THE ONLY TIME I EVER DIDN'T PARK IN THE DRIVEWAY) .

5. I put my car on the OTHER side of the street. Not right in front of my building.

6. I put my lipstick on. Because it's habit.

7. I put perfume on. Because God told me to.

8. I walked across the street and had to PAUSE to get my keys, because my arms were full.

9. Walker Woman walked by me at that EXACT SAME MOMENT. On THAT SIDE OF THE STREET. Close enough to SMELL ME. What if she had been 10 steps ahead of herself, out of "smelling range"?

10. She stopped and said something. What if she hadn't stopped and had just thought it?!?!

11. God told me to give her the perfume.

12. I fought him.

13. He told me again.

14. I relented of my ideas of how they day should progress, I gave up being "On Time."

15. I successfully tracked her down.

And bam. That was it.

If any of you think this is somehow less than miraculous, that I somehow made this happen so I could be a "good person".... go read 1-15 again.

Are you getting the picture?

This is beyond coincidence. This is beyond reason. This is beyond random.

Wolfies, this is beyond POSSIBLE.

Like I have said before, I couldn't have manipulated, finagled, coerced, or forced this situation to happen if I tried with everything I have--and I can manipulate, finagle, coerce, or force my way into almost any situation.

No. This was RIDICULOUSLY the hand of God and that is just all there is to it.

So. What in the world does this have to do with you?

Ha.

Well, for starters, what is God telling you to do?

And why are you not doing it?

Are you letting your thoughts of how you think life and events and your circumstances should go get in the way of what you know you should be doing? Have you ever thought that maybe you might be the answer to the prayers of a woman who lost her husband, had a murdered daughter, and was feeling lonely in a town full of people who don't believe the same things she did?

Have you ever thought that maybe God wants to blow your mind?

Build your faith so much by coming through, and showing you that he cares about EVERY detail of your life? And not only yours, but everyone else too?

Babes. When God tells you to do something, he has a reason for it. It might be for you. It might be for someone else. It might be for both of you. Or it might just be for Him.

Either of those categories are good, because they are his plan.

His plan knocked the wind out of me that day. I was humbled. I was caught off guard. I learned my first lesson in not fighting him. I learned he knows better than I do.

And I want you to know those things. I want him to take your breath away.

Whatever the situation you find yourself in, if he is telling you to give your perfume away, give your perfume away.

Oh my gosh, Wolfies--give your perfume away! I promise you he knows what he is doing.