little faith

[y] this past monday, my sister told me that my mom was in tears because she lost her purse when she accidentally left her purse in a shopping cart in a walmart parking lot. she went back 30 minutes later and the purse was no where to be seen. my mom had EVERYTHING in that purse...cash, credit cards, phone numbers and addresses that she had scribbled down in a little notebook (that wasn't backed up anywhere else), a flash drive (with her financial info and various other info that wasn't backed up anywhere else), cell phone, pay stub, etc. my mom was devastated, but took action immediately to cancel all of her credit cards and bank accounts. i called her and she kept saying, "i wish the person would just take the money and mail the purse back to me..." and in my head, i'm thinking "yeah right, if a person is so desperate to steal a purse, he's not going to spend money on postage to mail the purse back." but i told my mom that i would pray for that. well the days passed and everytime i reached into my own purse, i remembered to pray for my mom's purse...that someone would return it. well this past saturday, i specifically pleaded to God, "please convict the thief to mail my mom's purse back...it could be a testimony to her that you are faithful and maybe she'll start going to church again." a few hours later, my mom calls me and ecstatically tells me that someone mailed her purse back! all of the cash and gift cards had been taken, but EVERYTHING else was still in there! now what kind of thief takes the time to mail a purse back instead of just disposing of it? i truly believe that it was the work of God to convince the thief to mail the purse back. so i told my mom, "i prayed that God would make the person mail the purse back!" and she said, "thank you!" and i said, "don't thank me, thank God!" well i don't know if she'll go back to church, but hopefully a seed has been planted...

on a completely different note, i occasionally am convicted that i should be more bold and strike up conversations with my neighbors...but i always wimp out. i had 2 taiwanese/chinese single females living around me and all i could muster up was a smile and hi/bye. i already knew one of the girls was christian and had invited her to small group once, but after being rejected, i sort of just quit trying...and now she has moved away. i had never met the other asian female until she caught me a day after she had been assaulted in our parking lot late at night and she wanted to warn me to be careful...but i haven't seen her since that day. almost everyday, i see another neighbor who parks right next to me and details people's luxury cars part-time. well after the assault and word had spread around the complex, he said that we all need to watch out for each other and if i was ever in trouble or needed help, i could call him. so he gave me his business card. he's african american and his name is mohammed. since then, we've been saying hi/bye/how are you doing...but i was always too wimpy and in a hurry to say much else. plus, his name was mohammed...so i figured he wasn't christian and probably would harshly refuse my invitation to church. well gordo has been saying that he wants to get his car detailed and i said my neighbor does it so maybe i can ask him to detail his car. i happened to see my neighbor working on someone's car and asked if he could detail gordon's car this weekend. he said sure and we continuted to carry on a conversation. after i said that we would take my car to church and leave gordon's car here, he asked me what church i attended. i told him and he said, "my girlfriend and i haven't found a church yet..which is bad...but we're always willing to go when people invite us to their church" and i was thinking, "man this is too easy! so i invited him to W, but since he's detailing gordo's car today, he couldn't go today. he said he was born a muslim and was named mohammed by his grandfather, but since then, he has converted to christianity.

these 2 incidents have recently made me realize that i have faith the size of a pea. i pray that God will grow my faith and that i will act upon that faith more and more so that He will be glorified...