Turtles, all the way.

How God Turtled My Monday. 

I’m right now in the parking lot at Sam’s. I had to stop and write this one up…

On the way back from Bible study this morning, the one where Heath challenged us about speaking to others when the Holy Spirit prompts — and even asked me to cite an example (unworthy!) — I took the back way down by WalMart, to gas the guzzler before work. This routed me down that long straight stretch of Carmel Drive, and as I saw a dark spot ahead. I knew what it was: a turtle. So I pulled over, dodged a few cars, and rescued this little guy. I took him across the street & down the hill towards a pond, and he had his head sticking out, locking eyes with me all the way.  I found the spot, let him go, said a blessing and rolled on. And then on the way out, the Holy Spirit said “Hey cool, you went out of your way to keep that turtle from getting splatted… would you run across the street for a human soul?”  “Um, sure, when you put it like that.” He was definitely prepping me for the next thing.  

I got to Sam’s, waited my turn in line at the gas pump, and the lady that pulled up next to me in a beat-up Explorer was fumbling for her cards.  My first thought was maybe I should buy her some gas.  My next thought after she found her cards and entered her own member number and all that good stuff, was:  “Actually, now I’m supposed to talk to her.  Can’t I just buy her gas? Fine. Okay, Ready, Go…”  and so I just stuck my head around the pump and said Morning!  She smiled and replied, we had a brief gas pump conversation, something about what side of the car the fill was on (RH side on this year model Explorer, BTW). 

When that thread played out, I asked her if she had a full week ahead.  She paused, shook her head woefully and said “SO much.”  “How about you?” I said “Well, I just came from a Bible study at church this morning, every Monday, and it always sets the week up right. All the things, but somehow God works it out so that it they are better In the right perspective.”  She smiled, and nodded, kind of a lips-pressed-together smile that I read to mean “maybe so,” and replied something in agreement.  There you go, God, I thought – I did my part.  “You’re not done just yet.” She hung up the pump handle, and I said to her “Hey, remember that Jesus loves you!” And she said “Thank you.” And then, “He loves you too.”  Me: “Yes, He does…praise God!”  

Then I asked her if there was anything I could pray for her about. She said yes, please: that she lost her mom two years ago, and she was having a really hard time with that anniversary, and with her dad now (I suppose a later years situation) and she didn’t really know what she was going to do. So I asked her name, asked her if I could pray with her.  And right there by a gas pump at Sam’s, we held hands & prayed just for a moment.  She said “thank you, I really needed that – I’m going to a Jericho Walk right now at my house.”  She got back in her truck, started it up, and just before she pulled away – since my giant gas tank was still filling – I tapped on the window.  She rolled it down. “Hey, I just wanted to let you know that He sent me to talk to you.  Specifically.”  And she said “Yes, He did. That’s probably because I’ve been talking to Him all morning.”  And she was crying. 

Fellas, that’s what happened today OTW to the office.  I don’t know what the Lord did with it from there, but that’s not my deal. May each one of you walk forward in some small way that’s great because of Him and blesses somebody else — actual turtles or maybe turtle-like people — and be doubly blessed by the encounter.  

And pray for Melody, would you?  Thanks, Monday Men.

In Christ, 

 — Trey

P.S.: About the title: an old story of infinite regress, as recorded in Wikipedia. #WorldviewMatters y’all…

“The linguist John R. Ross … associates James with the phrase:

The following anecdote is told of William James. […] After a lecture on cosmology and the structure of the solar system, James was accosted by a little old lady.

“Your theory that the sun is the centre of the solar system, and the earth is a ball which rotates around it has a very convincing ring to it, Mr. James, but it’s wrong. I’ve got a better theory,” said the little old lady.

“And what is that, madam?” inquired James politely.

“That we live on a crust of earth which is on the back of a giant turtle.”

Not wishing to demolish this absurd little theory by bringing to bear the masses of scientific evidence he had at his command, James decided to gently dissuade his opponent by making her see some of the inadequacies of her position.

“If your theory is correct, madam,” he asked, “what does this turtle stand on?”

“You’re a very clever man, Mr. James, and that’s a very good question,” replied the little old lady, “but I have an answer to it. And it’s this: The first turtle stands on the back of a second, far larger, turtle, who stands directly under him.”

“But what does this second turtle stand on?” persisted James patiently.

To this, the little old lady crowed triumphantly,

“It’s no use, Mr. James—it’s turtles all the way down.”

— J. R. Ross, Constraints on Variables in Syntax, 1967^[10]“

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtles_all_the_way_down, retrieved 12-June-23, 12:25pm CDT.