I was sitting in my car, in line at the toll booth, waiting to pay my fee and get to work. My mind was going ninety miles an hour as I thought of what my daily workload would be like. As the car in front of me pulled through the toll booth, I let off the brake and pulled forward, fee in hand.
Suddenly out of the blue a thought popped into my head. "Pay the toll for the car behind you." Had I taken a moment to think about the absurdity of the thought, I probably would have rationalized it away as a comment from an obscure sermon in our church over the past few months. Instead, I reached into my change compartment and pulled out another dollar bill.
When I reached the toll booth operator, I handed her the money and said, "This includes the toll for the car behind me." She said nothing, just handed me two receipts instead of one, and wished me a good day. I replied in kind and took off. I did look in the rearview mirror as I pulled away. Maybe it was my imagination, but it seemed that it took a long time for the car behind me to join the stream of traffic.
In any case, my heart was dancing inside me. I had just done something nice for somebody I didn't even know. I wondered how it would affect that person's day. I never stopped to think how it might affect mine.
After I arrived at work, I kicked into high gear and started on one of several projects on which I was working. Throughout the course of the day, situations occurred which were totally and completely outside the norm of my regular work day. One incident resulted in my obtaining some incidental computer equipment I'd been wanting, all of it steeply discounted. (Half an hour later and the items would have been unavailable.) Another incident involved an issue with a project at work which at first appeared to be a major problem, but ended up being a blessing in disguise, not only for me but for several others in my office. Even an issue that started out very badly ended up going well.
As I headed home for the evening, I couldn't help but wonder how my day would have been different had I not started it by helping a total stranger for no reason whatsoever. Would the good things have turned out badly, the bad things been worse? Was God rewarding me for doing what I did, or was this just karma? Did my small gesture of kindness change the day of the person who ended up receiving it? I don't know. All I am certain of is that listening to the little voice inside of me and following it gave me a day that will stand out in my memory for a long time.
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