Day 19

 

Donnie's Roommate

 

"O Lord, you have searched me and you know me."

 

Psalm 139:1

 

 

 

My first roommate in Seminary was perfect. Because he was so perfect, he was not the perfect roommate.

 

Donnie was 6 foot 4 inches tall. I am just 6 foot. Donnie was big muscular guy. I looked like the poster boy for "Feed The Children." Donnie played college football. I played college hooky and went to the zoo as often as I went to class. Donnie had money. I had a car payment. Donnie had his shirts sent to a laundromat and were starched and ironed. My polyester shirts would have melted into a puddle if an iron touched them. Donnie drove a Camaro. I drove an un-air conditioned Vega. Donnie played the guitar. I could identify a guitar in a line up of musical instruments. Donnie's grandfather was a lawyer and his father was a doctor. My grandfather once rescued a orphaned baby squirrel and raised it and my father won a hockey stick for us with a center ice slap shot at a promotion during a hockey game (chalk one up for team Jess). All the girls on campus knew Donnie. I had no name. I was called Donnie's roommate.

 

I could have been angry about that but did I mention that Donnie was a great guy? I couldn't be mad at him, it wasn't his fault that girls thought he was so wonderful and thought that I was so ... actually they didn't think of me at all. Still it would have been nice to have a name other than Donnie's roommate.

 

The good news is that God knew and knows my name. The 139 Psalm tells me that God knows everything about me. He knows my limitations. He knows my thoughts. He knows how I spend my time. And he thinks I am "fearfully and wonderfully made." (Psalm 139:14) So if everyone else knows me as Donnie's roommate, Ethan's dad or Jo's husband, I'm okay with it. God knows who I am and that is good enough for me.

 

Bonus Story

 

My boss told me that because of the snow the store would be closed on Saturday. I had been at Seminary for several months and had not made a trip home because I had to work on weekends because I was poor and I liked to eat. So despite the heavy snow I got in my Vega and headed for home.

 

I decided to take a short cut on a country highway to cut over to the interstate. The snow was really coming down so I figured I better get to the interstate in a hurry knowing if a road would be kept open that would be it. I was in the middle of nowhere when I got a flat tire. I got out my spare and jack and began to take the flat tire off. It was so cold I couldn't feel the lug nuts in my fingers. I got the flat tire off and was putting on the spare only to discover my spare was flat as well.

 

At this point I began to think of a short story we had to read in high school. It was a story by Jack London called To Start A Fire. The main character in the story is in the frozen wilds of Alaska and he has one match to start a fire or he will freeze to death. He manages to start the fire but as the warm smoke drifted upwards some snow in a tree melted and fell out of the tree and put out the fire. When you are cold and in the middle of nowhere with no one around you think of theses things.

 

I started to pray. I promised God if he would get me out of the mess I was in that I would go to Africa as a missionary if he wanted me to. I promised God if he wanted me to I would marry a fat girl. (Okay, I know that is really shallow but it was real cold and I wasn't thinking too clearly). Since I am not in a freezer now sitting next to Ted William's frozen head you can safely assume that God got me through the situation.

 

Psalm 139 not only tells me that God knows my name and all about me, he also knows where I am at all times and is with me. There is nowhere in his creation I can go without his presence with me. And that is very comforting if you are in a hospital room waiting for news, in a motel far from home or in a car with 2 flat tires in the middle of a snow storm.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read Psalm 139:1-24

 

• Can you ever escape the presence of God?
• Can there be a patch of your life so dark that God cannot see you?
• How long has God known you?