Journey of Faith Pt.1 (The Dog and The Gate)

Have you ever had those moments that are seemingly beyond coincidence? Like when you’re thinking of someone then all of sudden minutes, if not seconds later, they call you or you run into them in the store? There are an infinite amount of moments similar to this that happen all the time with or without our notice. It’s when we actually are able to pay attention for a brief moment and catch it that it just blows our mind. Well at least mine gets blown. Where am I going with this you may ask? Well God has me on this interesting journey at the moment. It’s a journey called faith. What is faith? A journey that lasts a lifetime because our faith is slowly, steadily, and faithfully increasing every day in some form of capacity with or without our acknowledgment. Currently it’s defiantly being highlighted for me to pay extra attention to it to be able to grow exponentially in it.

This post will be multi-part because there’s a lot to be highlighted and shared from this past month or two and I want to be very intentional and specific on what God wants to reveal in each post. As I stated this is about faith and how one: my faith has been challenged yet grown and two: how continually faithful our wonderful Father is. So, without further a-do let me share a quick story about the dog and the gate.

It’s 5am. The alarm goes off. The typical snooze to get an extra 30 minutes in before I officially start the day. Usually when I wake up I log into my route app to see where I’m going to be delivering for the day. (Side note: I currently work at FedEx). I’m mainly in Conway but this day…oh no. I’m in an area I’ve never been before. Not only that but its an area that’s mainly all country with everything spread out. I grumble my frustrated complaints. *Sigh*, whatever. Get to work, load my truck, head off into the unknown with not the greatest attitude. Oh did I mention that this day was a rainy day as well. Rainy day plus unknown route in the boonies that had more places gated without access than a wealthy neighbored in the nice part of town. Great, just great. I try my best throughout the day to keep a positive attitude and to remind myself of God’s goodness and faithfulness and that I’ll get thru it because He’s with me always. True thoughts for sure but I’m still an imperfect human learning to die to self and surrender everyday. Some days are better than others. This day defiantly more on the not so better days.

Luckily though I work with a solid team that helps each other whenever some of us are behind and needs assistance in the field. I had two people come and save me from drowning so I’m not stuck out there till night time trying to find places. Thank God! As the last guy and good friend helped take a section of stops from me he reminded me that its all good and there’s no reason to get bent out of shape about little things like this and to not let our circumstances get one over on us. Ya you’re right appreciate it man. So, there I was with only a handful of stops left but mainly had to back track to things I missed before and found later.

The Dog:

God is defiantly patient. I mean extremely patient. So patient that He still hasn’t decided to rain His Almighty judgment on us quite yet because He loves and cares for us so much that He’s still waiting for us to acknowledge and turn to Him. Now that’s love right there. Thanks Lord you’re the best! (Fist bump.) With that being said and as mentioned at the beginning there are an infinite amount of moments where we can easily pass as coincidence instead of God doing something. 

I intentionally passed this one stop because well it’s highly frustrating when people don’t properly communicate which house is theirs especially the ones that have multiple mailboxes next to each other and then I’m left playing eeny, meeny, miny, moe to figure out who’s who. Rant over. So, I skipped this house and went on but the Holy Spirit convicted me and said “hey sooo about that package you skipped. You’re going to deliver that right? You kind of have to.” Okay fine whatever I’ll go back and deliver it. So there I was back in the same area but this time the sun is not on my side and it’s my second to last stop at this point. Still raining by the way. I’m driving slow actually trying to find this house when I’m greeted by this dog who came out into the street. Nothing spectacular cause well you know I run into dogs all the time especially when they want to have a nipping match with my tires for some reason. I didn’t really pay much mind to it but this dog was chill and was kind of like “hey follow me” as I’m stopped in front of this house thinking if it’s the house I need to go to and while I’m contemplating that very dog started walking up the drive way of said house. I’m like okay what the heck I’ll see if its it or not. I pull up and this lady happens to be outside. In the rain. Roll down window. “Is this such and such”? “Ya that’s me”. WOOOOOW…for real? I give her the packages and go about my business and then I realize. That was so the Holy Spirit. HE actually used the dog to lead me exactly where I needed to go in the dark while it was raining and what are the odds of someone actually being outside. Okay God I see you. Coincidence?

The Gate:

As I’m headed to my last stop, well back to one of my first stops in which this was about to be my third time in the neighborhood cause I found things later on that I thought I didn’t have at the time. Anyway, as I’m headed back to a missed stop from the beginning I’m still going over the whole dog thing and my frustrated state of mind is starting to cool down a bit. The neighborhood I’m headed to has a gated entrance and I have no code and the only way for me to get in is to go down this list of names and call people on the intercom until someone opens the gate for me or wait for someone to exit and piggyback off them. As I’m not looking forward to go thru this spill a third time I turn onto the street with the gate and to my amazement the gate is wide open! What. Are. The. Odds! Come on now. It’s as if God was like hey no worries I opened the way for you to enter, I got you, I love you, now go on thru and head home and get some rest you’ve done well today despite you’re poor attitude. I love you. Like come on. First the dog leading me to where I needed to go and now I didn’t have to go thru the irritating effort of finding someone to open the gate for me instead it was open waiting for me specifically at that time. (It’s as if God made a way for us to come to Him without any to no effort on our part at all.) If I was a smidge early or late who knows if it would be open and likewise with the dog if i was a smidge early or late would it have been there and the lady be outside? Only God knows and regardless how you look at or justify this somethings, like this, are just way beyond coincidence. That’s how I see it anyway.

So what exactly does faith have to do with this story? Obviously faith or any thought thereof was not on my mind. I defiantly was in my flesh reacting irrationally and caught up in my emotions so it wasn’t my faith on display. Gods’ sure was though. He’s faithfulness was on full display and it slapped me in the face. Gracefully, in a good way though. Like a come back to your senses kind of way. Remembering who He is and that He’s got me no matter what. It’s like what scripture says “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”(Ephesians 2:8&9) I literally did nothing of my own for these events to take place but God. Even if He intended it to be that way or not the fact is I was able to come back to my senses take a deep breath and simply thank Him for those events even if it was just random luck. I personally believe in purpose and reason but either way God gains the glory.

There’s defiantly a lot to learn and take away from this. I know I surely did and this took place last week and I’m just now sharing the story and gaining stuff from it. It’s the little details in life that, if we are still and presently paying attention to whats around us, we can notice God moving in any and every way. Yes, He does huge blatantly noticeable things but most of the time He can be found in the smallest of things that are easily overlooked. I hope this encourages you to stay faithful in Him because He’s always and forever faithful with you.

“Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we may boldly say: