The Coke Can

July in Texas is hot! Here I was again at the end of the day completely and utterly spent. Drenched in sweat and dust after mowing grass all day. I could hardly move my muscles as I unloaded my equipment out of the truck and into the storage building I rented. The sun beat down on me. Dry, ovenlike. I sat in the truck and had to try with what strength I had left to get each leg into the truck and now I was ready to go home. Thoughts of air- conditioning and ice cold tea danced in my head. As I drove around another storage building at this facility I saw a coke can discarded lying on the ground close to a building. As I drove by the Lord spoke, “Pick it up.” I stopped. Looking in my rear view mirror I could see the can and I thought, “I would have to get out of my truck to pick that up.” I looked ahead and to my delight I saw some trash right in the middle of the driveway. I was happy because I could drive right up to it, open my door and pick it up. I was thinking that the point was to pick up trash. So I drove forward, stopped, opened my door, and leaning out I picked up that trash. “There”, I said to the Lord, “how’s that?” I never will forget it, just as clear as a bell he said, “Not what I told you to do.” I felt heartbroken. I was so exhausted, but I knew what I had to do. So I drove around through the storage place, stopped the truck, got out and picked up that coke can.

When God speaks it’s sometimes easy to reason within yourself that “what he really means is…” and come up with some well thought out conclusion or principle and to think that your conclusion is right. What God wants is simple childlike faith and trust. He wants us to listen to him, believe what he says, and walk with him.

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