The cupcake lady

Cynicism is contagious.  It’s infectious.  The doubt and distrust become so deeply engrained that we don’t recognize the harm they cause.  But just when you’re convinced the whole world is horrible and that altruism is dead, here comes the cupcake lady.  She quietly sets up shop and exudes this wonderfully inspiring generosity.  My friend met her in the grocery store.  The cupcake lady approached the check-out lane where my friend is a cashier.  She loaded her groceries from the cart, and as my friend scanned each item, the cupcake lady planted a seed.  My friend saw the baking cups and all the cupcake ingredients and inquired as they rode the conveyor belt.  Little did she know she would ever meet the cupcake lady again.  Then came a particularly interesting bus ride.  It happened on another day that my friend and the cupcake lady rode the very same bus at the very same time.  Because cashiers at grocery stores see all kinds of people, some days are quite trying.  Too many instances of people mistreating their children, too many scenarios of people abusing welfare systems, and the list goes on and on.  So to meet the cupcake lady on the bus and realize she made some special cupcakes for a very sweet cashier was quite timely.  Her generosity hit the spot.  Why would the cupcake lady bake cupcakes for a cashier she hardly knew and make an extra trip to the store to deliver them, though she wasn’t sure the cashier would even be working then?  Here the Lord connects the 2 people on the bus, making certain the cupcake lady’s efforts don't go in vain.  How sweet is that!  I loved just hearing the story.  I'm inspired, and I’ve never personally met the cupcake lady.  And so I ask on your behalf for the Lord to send a cupcake lady to your neighborhood.  May the Lord encourage you and protect you from that cynicism to which we're all susceptible.

At the library conference

Just show up.  That’s the first step.  If we talk ourselves out of that, we lose any chance of seeing what God had in mind.  Two years ago, I showed up for a theater audition.  Community theater decided to let me play an annoying nurse, and that led to my part-time role now with a touring group that serves schools and libraries.  This past Thursday, I took a turn manning our booth at a library conference, and lo and behold, look what happens.  A librarian visits our booth and asks, “So how did you get into theater?”  Answer: God.  That night I attended a sketching class at our local library.  Still wearing my theater shirt and cap, the girl next to me asked, “So how did you get into theater?”  Answer: God.  And each time, my heart leaped.  With each occasion, I was humbled to realize I would’ve never known those sweet moments if I hadn’t have shown up for that first audition years ago.  “Lord, lead me.  Set my feet in motion.”  I relied on Psalms 37, 94, 121, and all those verses that say He won’t let our feet slip, all leading up to gleefully and giddily getting to answer somebody’s simple question, “So how did you get into theater?”  He makes the day much more than hosting a theater booth.  He shines His light upon a sketching class for it to become an opportunity to encourage.  But the first step is to show up.

Not just playing opossum

Look at these opossums!  What a surprise when my neighbor found them behind her back gate!  One mom, at least 5 babies, all taking up residence in an empty flower pot underneath the yard tools.  Makes me think of a certain email the other day.  This email arrived a certain inbox of a certain sweet girl.  Her inbox looked to be nothing unusual, but having been quite stressed just the previous afternoon by the details of planning her wedding, and in particular the task of designing her invitations, this sweet girl was about to discover something huge within that little email.  That previous day’s frustration had led to prayer.  That previous day’s prayer led to those moments when we wait.  How would the Lord answer?  And yet here came this simple email that advertised some new fonts, with one specific font being a wonderful fit for solving her design woes.  The delivery was actually quite huge.  Such a steep precipice of blessing lends us toward humility all over again.  The impeccable timing is what often sets apart the works of God, and we just never know exactly how, where, and when we’ll see Him during the ordinary day.  Maybe in a family of squiggly baby opossums that prompts us to ponder.  Maybe when dredging the deep, dark, endless queue of emails that we thought we would dread.  Acts 1:7 says, “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.”  And I can see that I wouldn’t want to know everything ahead of time.  That inner gasp of amazement I wouldn’t want to lose.