(In relating the following story, I am not recommending this sort of action by anyone outside of a na\u00efve, young, 6’4″ male.)<\/p>\n\n\n
“Whenever you did it unto the least of these, you did it unto me.<\/i>“<\/p>\n\n\n
One summer evening I was driving back to LeMars, Iowa from a week at Lake Okoboji camp when I saw a hitchhiker standing off the shoulder of the narrow country highway.<\/p>\n\n\n
I was in my early twenties, living in a trailer park, and working as a youth pastor. The man I picked up was pretty shaggy and rather quiet and heading to the South.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
It was getting late and since LeMars was coming up, I told him I wasn’t going too much further but that I would be glad to get him to a busier intersection where it might be easier to find a ride for the next leg of his trip.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
There was a McDonald’s near the spot I planned to drop him, so when he said he was hungry, I figured I would be generous and give him a few dollars to grab himself a Big Mac and a Coke.<\/p>\n\n\n
But when we arrived at the McDonald’s, I felt a nudge in my spirit – that’s all I can call it – that what he really needed was some company. So I stayed and had dinner with him.<\/p>\n\n\n
As we were eating, I was noticing how little traffic was really passing by and I found myself telling him that I didn’t think his chances were too good to get another ride in that place at that time of night and that – if he wanted – he could spend the night at my place.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
He was more than happy to accept. I actually had a spare room in my little trailer and I made up a bed for him. I am not sure how long it had been since he had slept in a bed. He was grateful.<\/p>\n\n\n
When he closed the door to his bedroom, I said a little prayer that he would not murder me in my sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n
But then something weird happened.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
Now, I have had some distinct experiences in my lifetime when I have felt God’s leading, fewer times when I have “heard His voice” almost audibly. But that night was different from any other spiritual experience I had known – I had the unmistakable impression that Jesus Himself was present.<\/p>\n\n\n
He was in my home! In fact, I had just given him my spare bedroom to use for the night. Jesus was just on the other side of that door.<\/p>\n\n\n
I felt God’s approval that night and I slept well.<\/p>\n\n\n
(And the hitchhiker didn’t murder me.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(In relating the following story, I am not recommending this sort of action by anyone outside of a na\u00efve, young, 6’4″ male.) “Whenever you did it unto the least of these, you did it unto me.“ One summer evening I was driving back to LeMars, Iowa from a week at Lake Okoboji camp when I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5340"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5341,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5340\/revisions\/5341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}