Now What? — a series of unfortunate attempts

“So here I am.” “Now what?”

These were the thoughts that were naturally spinning in my heart as I looked out into my neighborhood; my God-given mission field.

Though overwhelmed, I remembered the words a friend spoke to me a few years back. They were something like, “God sometimes only gives us enough light for the step we’re on.” This settles in me nicely because it makes sense otherwise we would know His whole plan. God wants us to take life one step at a time. He wants us rely on Him for the next step, and the next, and all of the steps after that.

So what is my first step? Now what? Through my lengthy thought processes I came up ‘relationships.’ It was time to make some friends!

Attempt One || Blue Bike Boy

It’s summer! AKA the perfect time to take strolls through the neighborhood and meet some people. It seemed like a reasonable plan of action to me. I began my walk with sight on a young boy standing on the side of the street with his bike. I could tell that he took great pride in his bike so I paused” to give him a compliment. “That’s such a cool bike! I love that it’s blue and how fast it looks!”, I said with great enthusiasm. He looked at me. For probably less than a second. And hopped on his bike and sped away.  

Attempt Two || The Dog Days Aren’t Over

Dogs are great conversation starters. Except when they’re not. On another walk, (I’m learning how much I love walks), I began to approach a house whose dog spotted me coming up the street and proceeded to bark (understandable, since I know I look very intimidating…). The barking dog’s family, who were sitting outside, quickly grabbed the dog and repeatedly told him to stop barking. Seeing this as a perfect way to start up a chat, I asked what the dog’s name was. However, they must have been too distracted by the barking. Because in response to my question they all stood up, the entire family, every single one of them, and took their barking dog inside.

Attempt Three || Boys and Dogs (and dinos) - the sequel

This was an in-house attempt actually. It was time to give the walks a break. I was gazing out my large front window as I often like to do, and to my surprise, I saw a unique sight in addition to my usual nice view of the road. In my usually vacant driveway stood a small boy, age 2 or 3 I would guess. He was holding two plastic dinosaurs, one in each hand. I watched him as he started to walk in circles from my driveway to my yard, seemingly caught up in watching his feet, in attempt to not fall. I opened the front door to widen my view of the street, to see who was along with him. Children that young would obviously have a parent with them, right? But he was alone. He must have seen me open the door because his little feet rushed up my front steps in anticipation. I crouched down to greet my little friend with a smile.

“My name is Brooke! What’s your name?”

The boy smiled but gave no response. I tried a different route.

“Those are some pretty sweet dinosaurs you have there! Do you know what kind they are? Do they have names?”

Still no response. But his smile did grow brighter.

Somewhere in the midst of our dinosaur talk my small dog sneakily pushed the door open from behind us and began to bark at the boy with great excitement to then chase him down the front steps. I ran after them, grabbing my dog as fast as I could while reassuring the boy she is a good dog and won’t hurt him. I quickly put her back inside, and noticed the boy was startled.

When I refocused from the moment of chaos, the boy looked at me and pointed. No words needed to be said because his nonverbal cue to his pants said it all. He was soaked. A strange, mute, alone little boy just peed his pants on my front porch. Like I mentioned before, dogs are great. Except maybe when they aren’t. With wet pants and no one with him, I figured it was time to take him home. I asked him where his house was and still there was no response, only another smile- even with wet pants. Another neighbor saw and joined us as we followed the small boy around until we eventually found his mother shouting for him.

So there you have it.

-Brooke