Our mouth was filled with laughter.... —Psalm 126:2 (rsv)
God, can You open the ground and let me disappear? As embarrassing moments go, this was one of my biggest. I’d been angrily waiting for my girlfriend Sheila and had a feeling that it would be a long wait. To give you an idea, Sheila’s license plate frame says, “Always late ...but worth the wait.” As I waited on a street corner, tapping my foot impatiently, I silently rehashed my negative thoughts: I told her that I only had forty-five minutes for lunch today since I had a meeting at 1:00 pm sharp.
Another friend was able to shrug off Sheila’s lateness as just one of her quirks, and so could I ...sometimes. Oh, why couldn’t she be more considerate? Still, I knew praying for someone else to change was a losing proposition, so instead I prayed, “God, help me be more tolerant!” And when I saw Sheila racing toward me down the street, I felt calmer and shouted, “I’m not mad at you! Stop running!” Which she did. Immediately.
That’s when I saw that the woman who stopped running was not my friend but a complete stranger, who was now walking very slowly past me, giving me an odd look along with plenty of space. And several minutes later, there was Sheila, strolling along as if she didn’t have a care in the world. She gave a big smile when she saw me. “Aren’t you proud of me? I’m only ten minutes late. Why are you laughing?” But I couldn’t answer her because I was laughing too hard, thinking of that stranger’s face. And since laughter and anger don’t mix at all, I thanked God for answering my prayer in such a funny way.
Written by Linda Neukrug
