Have you ever had one of those times when the money ran out before the month did?
It happened to us when I was in graduate school in seminary. I was taking a full class load while also working in a swimming pool service business that I had started. Sharon was teaching school. Neither of those jobs paid very well, but it was enough to meet our basic expenses during those days.
Our bank account was empty
However, at the end of one particular month we found ourselves with no money left in the bank account. It was a Friday and neither of us was scheduled to get paid until the first of the month which fell on the next Tuesday.
It wasn’t that we had spent frivolously that month. During those days we didn’t have any savings. We had little discretionary income and we carefully watched where every dollar went. I think we came up short that particular month because of some unexpected expenses that had popped up—you know, things like a car or appliance repair, or a medical bill that came due.
Whatever the reason, we found ourselves looking at the remaining few cents in our bank account on that Friday afternoon. Equally bare were the contents of our food cabinet and refrigerator. I remember that we had a few cans of soup and one or two cans of vegetables left.
Sharon did a great job of creatively putting some things together for our evening meal, but after that there really wasn’t that much left to eat in the house. We looked at each other and wondered out loud how we were going to make it without food the next three days.
We decided to pray and wait
Now, we weren’t desperate or without options. We could have fasted for those three days. I’ve done that purposely on a few occasions and, while I did feel more hungry than usual, I found I could certainly survive it without any problems.
I am also sure that we could have called up some friends from seminary or church and explained our situation and most of them would have gladly shared what they had. But, that would have been a little embarrassing, and we didn’t want to do that.
So, we just decided to pray and wait. We reminded ourselves of a similar time just a couple of years before when we had been serving in a campus ministry at the University of Missouri. About a week before we got our end-of-month check, our bank account had been quite lean then, too. Some friends called us and said they were traveling out of town for about a week and wanted to know if we could help them out by house sitting for them.
We happily agreed and arranged for a visit to their home to find out all the details. As we finished getting instructions and were about to leave, the lady of the house said, “Oh, before I forget, let me show you one more thing.”
She took us to the pantry and then to the freezer and said, “We’ve stocked the cabinets and the freezer with food for you while we are gone. Please help yourselves to everything.”
We ate better that “lean” week of our lives than all the other weeks during those months when we met our food budget! We delighted in how the Lord had more than met our need at that time.
A surprise knock on the door
So, on that Friday evening during seminary when our cupboards were bare, we wondered if and how the Lord might provide again.
We didn’t have to wait long. About 10:30 PM there was a knock on our front door. We looked at each other wondering who it could be and walked over to gaze through the peep hole to see who was there at that unusual hour.
There stood our next door neighbor whom we called “Big John” because he was well over six feet tall and was quite husky. He was a friendly guy but we didn’t know him that well. We had met his wife and daughter and spoken a few times over the months that we had lived there. We knew that he worked a day job but also had a part time job on weekends at “C…..’s” fast food chicken restaurant down the road.
As we turned on the porch light and opened the door, we saw that John had his arms full of several large boxes of fried chicken from the restaurant. He said, “I saw your light on and thought I’d stop by. We had a really slow night at the restaurant and had all this chicken left over. They were just going to throw it out, so I decided to bring it home. We kept a few boxes and wondered if maybe you would like these.”
We eagerly thanked him for thinking of us and told him we gladly would like to have that chicken. He handed over the boxes, said good night and walked back to his house next door.
We didn't eat chicken again for a while!
We had more than enough to eat over the next three days. We had chicken for breakfast, chicken for lunch and chicken for dinner. By the end of those days, though, we didn’t think we ever wanted to eat chicken again! In fact, though chicken from that restaurant was pretty good, I have never again eaten in that particular restaurant chain that I can recall because we were pretty burnt out after a solitary diet of its fried chicken for three days.
As I reflect on God’s provision for our need during that time I am reminded how the Lord sent quail for the people of Israel during their wandering in the desert. The Bible says they so craved meat that they grumbled and complained to Moses relentlessly. In response, God told Moses that he would supernaturally send quail to them and that they would eat it continually day and night for “a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you…” (Numbers 11:20 ESV).
We weren’t complaining about having no meat that weekend in Dallas (though we might have whined a little bit), but I’m really glad that we didn’t have to eat that chicken for a whole month. It never became loathsome to us, but it had certainly lost much of its appeal by Monday evening.
Over the years we have seen the Lord faithfully provide in many ways for both our personal needs and the ministries we have served. Most times he has done so in just normal ways, but a few times in a remarkable way like that Friday evening during seminary days.
We haven’t always had what we wanted, but we have certainly had enough and, most of the time, more than enough. He has always been faithful to his promise, and one of the most memorable for us was when he did it through Big John and “C….’s fried chicken.
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