By Steve Stricker
Columnist

Leaving my driveway on any given day and entering that conduit to St. John’s for daily Mass called a motorway, or street, I prepare myself for the gauntlet of ever-present idiot drivers and always find them!

However, as a Behaviorist now I set myself up to find what I was looking for and it was tiring and stressful. So, paradigm shift, i.e., major change of thinking – began looking instead for at least three people to help every day, to include good drivers and instances where I could assist someone by letting them in front of me, etc., and it worked.

Then I found myself on the way to church to sit quietly before our Lord in the tabernacle at least an hour before Mass, then afterward just minutes after receiving the true body and blood of Christ in the Holy Eucharist, getting upset with hormone girls, testosterone boys, and just small-brained people disregarding roundabout and other road rules at high speeds and being extremely competitive, breaking as many law’s to thwart them and being drained getting to church, then home.

Realizing I was the worst kind of hypocrite, a Christian one, and that I was only hurting myself, had a long talk with me in one of my quit times in church. After that, on the way to and from church, I repeated in my mind over and over, “I am the vessel for the body and blood of Christ and must keep it pure.”

Wow! That really worked. Now, there are times when some insecure bean-head in a big-ole truck gets inches from my back bumper and while praying for them, very slowly move forward, but for the most part am deeply contemplating the miracle of Christ being present in me from communion and am praying to God for his will only be done in me and to use me to be a tool for him to help someone else and it happens often…and I’m aware of the Holy Spirit working in me.

For example, Monday, September 2, Labor Day, after 8:30 am Mass, to Kroger to spend a whole lot to get a whole lot less! At checkout, my meager purchases spread out on the conveyor, there was a middle-aged black lady with her teenaged daughter in front of me who had her items checked but was having a problem of some kind with her card being rejected.

There was considerable talk back-and-forth and while trying not to listen, staring across the store, heard the lady say that she knew she had money on the card. The checkout lady would leave her station, go somewhere, come back and go back again. This was probably 15 or 20 minutes. All this time I was praying to God to help her or to use me to help her. Just as I was ready to step forward to pay for her groceries, the checkout lady said, “Your card went through!” Whew.

The lady then looked at me and apologized for taking so much time and I said, “Ma’am, I’ve been praying for you this entire time.” Her eyes got wide and she reached out, shook my hand, thanked me, and we both thanked God.

Later I thought she must have used her card earlier to make a purchase and not enough time had elapsed to use it again; this has happened to me, but in the time it took to figure that out, enough time had passed to free it.

Be a true Christian, not hypocrite – help someone else every day…you will feel better, and God will notice, assist and reward you.
GO REBELS – Thump Georgia Southern!

Steve lives in Oxford, worked on Campus, and received his Ph.D. in Counseling from Ole Miss.