It's been a while since I've taken the bus. Yes, I've become one of those people who drive everywhere, so I'm rusty with my translink knowledge (which bus goes where and which direction I should be going etc). Bus fare has really gone up, yikes! Not a bad day to experiment though since the weather was spectacular and the sun wasn't going down anytime soon (usually not til almost 9pm these days). So after wandering up and down some streets I took one bus to head west and then had to transfer onto another bus to head south with the destination being the house of the friend I carpooled with to the charity run earlier in the day. What would usually take 20 minutes in a car took 40 minutes by bus, but it slowed me down to listen in (or eavesdrop) into conversations and notice the nuances in the people and the environment around me. A little girl and her mum were on their way to a play date pool party. They were talking to a father who had a visually impaired daughter. They chatted about the weather, the city, kids parties on weekends and such. Interesting.
I got off 3 blocks away from my friends house. A young man who got off in front of me looked puzzled upon exiting the bus. "Are you ok? Do you know where you're going?" I asked (I wasn't even entirely sure where I was going). He hesitated. "It's my second day in Vancouver" So thus my curiosity spring boarded into a conversation spanning 2 blocks. Turns out that he's a student from Ireland who's here with a few friends to find summer jobs. "People here are so nice. Really nice" he commented a few times.
I take for granted that the people in Vancouver are very friendly.
When I arrived at my friend's house, I looked around. My car wasn't there. "hmmm, this is interesting... Did something happen? Did someone move it? Did it get stolen?" Then it dawned on me that I had parked it 20 blocks down the other way because we were in a hurry in the morning and had decided to meet where we were picking up another friend. I have a terrible memory for where I park my car. It's like once I park it, the location of the car slips into an abyss in my brain. So I had to take the bus once again.
I was getting thirsty and hot at this point, since it's been well over an hour of transiting. Life is hard, you know ;) Anyways, what a pleasant surprise that awaited me. Right where the bus doors opened, were 2 little girls that greeted me with smiles asking "would you like some lemonade?" Well, how can I turn down these girls who were fundraising for the children's hospital. Apparently one of their neighbors friends had passed away after being ill, and the children's hospital really helped in the process. That's meaningful and inspiring. The lemonade was super refreshing too!
As I look back to the turn of events, I realized that if I had not gone the "roundabout" route I had taken, I would not have overheard the interesting conversation on the bus, met the Irish bloke (who I ended up giving my card to and inviting to come onto campus to meet other students) nor would I have had an opportunity to meet those sweet girls and enjoy that awesome cup of lemonade.
As some people around me have been asking question about next steps in their future, it makes me think that, like my encounter today, God often has some interesting surprises in store for us. We just take it a step at a time. I often say, if we're abiding in Him, we can't really make a wrong decision, because every decisions would be Christ-centered and we would be motivated out of love for God and love for others. Before, I had found myself asking "what should I do?" a lot, now the harder but more significant question is "how do i abide in you?" which lead to questions like "what's hindering me from yielding to you? What are my fears? my doubts? what am i trusting in more than you?"
and eventually... i find myself asking more and more
"so... what do you care about? care to show me?"
So, are you ready to get on the bus?
