FOG…. It’s a little something called the Favor Of God.
Basically it’s when something ridiculously amazing happens that you totally know was straight up from God. It’s a random blessing that you were not expecting. It’s getting a sleeping bag given to you from someone you just met when you’re sleeping on the floor of a church. It’s hopping on a random bus and seeing friends who were just talking about how they were going to try to get a hold of you. It’s as simple as a slice of pizza given to you when you have absolutely no money for food. It’s just something random and unexpected that you know is from God.
Whenever we are following God and His plans, we will be living in the FOG. He’ll bless us at random times. Sometimes we will be expecting it, and sometimes it will be so unexpected but so needed. It’s just how God works. The more you follow and trust Him, the more the FOG seems to just show up.
How I seem to get anywhere in my life over this last past year has been crazy FOG. I went to Hawaii for three months, China for 2 ½ months, back to Kona for 5 weeks, and OC for 2 weeks. I always put every penny I have in and come up short, but God loves to supply and provide when we give it all. Here is a little story of some FOG on my way home from OC to Detroit:
The two-week outreach to OC ended officially on Saturday, 27 August 2011. The staff from the outreach were driving people to the airport up until the following Monday. My ticket from LA to Detroit was on Tuesday. I had a 1:20 pm flight to Las Vegas and then left there at 10:30 pm to fly to Detroit…and land at 5:30 am on Wednesday J So I didn’t have a ride to the airport.
I looked up different plans online, tried to find rides from people I knew, advertised my need for a ride on Facebook, and basically did everything I could to get to LAX by noon. For $50 I could get a shuttle to pick me up from the church I was staying and drop me off at the airport, or a $20 shuttle from the bus stop, or a $7 metro pass. I had literally no money. Not even a nickel in the change pocket of my wallet. So those options were quickly ruled out. All I had was an OC bus pass. So I looked up the bus schedule online and mapped my route to LAX. The hour long car ride would take me: about 4 hours via bus. My first bust ride would be 30 minutes. Wait for the next bus. Then 40 minutes. Wait for the next bus. 40 minutes. Wait for the next bus. 1 hour and 30 minutes. And then a 1.2 mile walk with my luggage to the airport. Sounds fun, hey?
I had originally planned to leave just before 7 am just in case I missed one of my busses. That way I’d for sure make it to the airport before noon. All I had was a backpack, so I didn’t have to worry about checking in my luggage. I woke up around 5:30, packed up my stuff, brushed my teeth…and it was like only 6am. So I decided to just leave earlier than planned. I figured it couldn’t hurt to be too early at the airport. The first bus picked me up at 6:20. I rode it for about 30 minutes and got off to transfer to the next bus. I had an unlimited bus pas for Orange County. I got on the next bus right away and rode it to the end of the line, so for about 40 some minutes. I got off and kinda wandered around trying to figure out where my next bus was. I finally found the stop across the street and down the road a bit. I waited for my bus and chatted with some other people waiting for the bus too. Finally the bus pulled up. I got on and tried to use my bus pass. Unfortunately the my OC bus pass didn’t work anymore. I had crossed into a different county and needed a different pass or had to pay the bus fare. I had no money so I left the bus and sat back down on the bench and watched the bus pull away.
Not gunna lie, this was the hard part. I had no money. No way to the airport. No cell phone to call anyone for help. Nothing. So I said to God, “Here I am. I’m doing this thing you told me to do. You said ‘Go, and I’ll provide for you.’ So here I am. You better show up.” Pretty basic. Pretty scary. Pretty exciting too at the same time.
A couple seconds later a guy walked up to a bench a bit away from me and was digging in his bag. I said, “Here we go, God,” and walked over to him. I explained my bus problem and my lack of money and asked if he could give me the $1.25 to ride the bus to my next stop. I figured I’d just have to do that for every stop until I got to the airport. He handed me 5 quarters right away and then started giving me more so I could get a transfer pass to ride my next bus. He gave me just over $2. Then we started talking more, and I explained my route to him and mentioned walking the 1.2 miles. He told me that he had taken the metro straight to LAX before and gave me about $5-6 more in quarters so I could get a day metro pass straight there. FOG!
We got on the bus and just started talking together. He told me where to get off and then started to help me buy the day metro pass. I put about $4 in the machine when another random woman walked passed me and told me to hit the refund button. She handed me her day pass and said she didn’t need it anymore. FOG! I hit the refund button and tried to give the money back to the guy, but he told me to keep it. We got on the metro and rode that for 20 some minutes until it was my stop. I transferred metros and then took a free shuttle from the metro station straight to the airport. I got there just after 10 am, plenty of time to get on my 1:20 flight.
I later counted all the quarters and random other coins that guy gave me. I had just over $7. I was able to get some food for my 8 hour layover in the Las Vegas airport.
That is the Favor Of God.
