Great Parking Spaces

I get good parking spaces. Not all the time but often. People in my car tease me about it because it is shocking sometimes.

At one point in my life I was a passenger in the car with a man of God i respected at the time... and still respect. He told me that he often prayed for a good parking space and then just drove up the area where he wanted to park. As a passenger I saw this man get great parking spaces right in front of where we were going.

I remember sitting there and making a decision. That provision was not just for him. It was for me also. I started doing it. I dealt with it like it was an adventure. It was an opportunity to see God do something. It was a game we could play together. It is a time I can concentrate on Him.

"What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" - Romans 8:31-32 ESV

"... but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it." - Hebrews 4:2b KJV

Years later I drove with that same man of God. This time i was driving and I told him what I did with parking and he said something like, 'Wow, I should start doing that again.'

At some point He had stopped believing God in that area of his life. He had stopped mixing faith with 'God is for me' in regards to parking. He had stopped driving to the area he wanted to be and just started settling for where he thought it would be 'practical' for him to find a space.

I don't think less of this person. He is a giant as far as I'm concerned and I'm not worthy to untie his shoelaces but It says something to me about the nature of grace and promises. They are mystical. They can slip through our fingers. We can forget because it isn't what we are seeing day to day in the world. We can neglect the favor that God wants to give us.

I apply this principle (pray then drive to the front) in some areas of my life but not all areas. Parking spaces are 'low stakes' things. It isn't going to cost me money... just some time. I won't lose my life if that day I have to park somewhere else. Still because i live this way there are the moments when I do seem to 'walk on water' in high stakes areas. Not on a stormy lake but in life.

This last week I prayed and drove to NYC to visit a few relatives and God met me there. He really did.

I saw a man of God park his car and it changed my life. He did it as a believer and I became one in a moment. I already was a believer in Christ but I suddenly became one for something new. I became one in practice.

I pray God would use us as a catalyst for someone's faith this week. I pray God would use us... weak but willing... faith mixers... believers.

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