Scripture Reading:
PHILIPPIANS 2:1–18
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.
1 PETER 5:6
WHEN HER MOTHER SUGGESTED SHE JOIN an eight-member Christian singing group called Alive, Ashley Payton declared there was no way she’d go to Wyoming. She was a nineteen-year-old minister’s daughter who had grown up in Southern California. The plan was that if a trial week of performing in Wyoming went well, she could travel with the group across the country, visiting churches for one year.
“Think about your dream,” her mother said.
Ashley was blonde with brown eyes and her voice easily rivaled many professional recording artists’. She had dazzled audiences since she was four years old and pictured herself singing for thousands of people every night. After a few days, the possibilities loomed larger than her concerns about the small towns.
“I’ll do it,” she said. “Maybe this is my big break.”
Her mother wrinkled her nose. “This trip isn’t about getting discovered, Ashley. It’s about serving God with your gift of music.”
Ashley knew her mother was right, but privately she was certain this trip would break her music career open. She flew to Wyoming and met the rest of the singing group. Fred and Rita were the couple in charge, and they treated her like a daughter. After singing as lead vocalist at a different church every night that week, Ashley was hooked. And once the group set out on its national tour they would be in big cities with large audiences.
They traveled from one city to the next in Fred and Rita’s motor home. Each night they would collect small donations that paid their expenses. At first, Ashley was thrilled to be singing with a professional group and watching people come to know God. But as time passed, the joy wore thin. She started to focus on the inconvenience of sharing a motor home with seven others and the times when the group’s funds ran so low they could only afford fast food.
One afternoon, they stopped at a small town restaurant for a sit-down dinner. They noticed a man dressed in tattered rags just outside the front door. His weathered face and matted hair were covered with a layer of silt and dirt.
“Bum!” Ashley whispered to herself.
When Fred stopped and started a conversation with “Gus,” Ashley was horrified, especially when she smelled the man’s body odor and the alcohol on his breath. Ashley wanted to cover her face with a bag.
“I can’t give you any money,” Fred said. “But you could be our guest.”
The grizzly old guy’s eyes fell on Ashley. “Okay.”
Once inside, the manager showed them to a table near the back of a large private room. Ashley sat down first and Fred motioned for Gus to sit next to her.
Great. Some life-changing music tour this turned out to be, huh, God? I should’ve just stayed home.
A putrid aroma surrounded Ashley like a cloud. For a moment she felt sorry for Gus, but then she thought it was his own fault. Too much drinking or drugs.
“So you say you’re Christians, huh?” Gus asked. “Well, I have a few questions for you. If God loves me, why doesn’t he get me off the streets?”
As Fred and others in the group began to tell Gus about how Jesus had died for him, Ashley realized she had never met anyone who understood so little about God. She forgot his dirty condition and listened closely.
“Jesus freed us from our sins,” Fred was saying.
“Free? I’ve always been free.”
“Not really,” Ashley cut in on Gus. “When we’re free in Christ, our circumstances don’t really matter anymore. All that matters is that he’s with us, he loves us, and he’ll see us safely home in the end.”
The moment Ashley finished speaking she felt guilty. She’d been complaining for weeks about her situation. Instead of using her gift of song to touch hearts for God, the tour had become all about her. Tears stung her eyes. Forgive me, God, for judging people like Gus. Thinking I’m better. I’m so sorry.
For the next half hour the group members took turns sharing why they had come to faith, and the certainty that God heard their prayers and worked miracles.
“Miracles, huh?” There was a sudden twinkle in Gus’s eyes. “I believe in miracles, too.”
After the meal, Fred offered Gus a ride to the next town where he knew of a church that could help Gus. The man agreed but headed to the restroom in the back of the room. The others got up and agreed to meet Fred and Gus out front of the restaurant.
After the group had waited a long time, Fred came out the front door. “Did Gus come out this way?”
“No,” Rita said. “Did you check the other exits?”
“I checked the bathroom. There’s one emergency exit back behind the cook’s station, but I would have seen him and the kitchen personnel saw no customer back there. This is the only way he could have come. It doesn’t make sense. It’s like he just disappeared.”
The group scanned the streets, but Gus was gone.
Suddenly, a heart-stopping possibility washed over Ashley. “You don’t think, maybe… he was an angel? It’s possible, isn’t it?”
Fred gazed at Ashley. “I guess we’ll never know.”
But Ashley was convinced that God had sent Gus to remind her of her purpose—not just while traveling with Alive, but her purpose in life. In fact, the trip wound up being life-changing, just as Ashley had hoped.
But not in the way she had expected.
Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
MATTHEW 23:12