CPR for the soul

Sometimes you get riders that become regulars. Sometimes it is by coincidence and sometimes it’s not. There is one young lady in particular that I have picked up about seven times.

The first time was a night that I had a flat tire. I drove her home with less than 5 pounds of pressure the last few blocks. We kind of bonded over that situation. I have picked her up when she’s been drunk and I had to make sure she made it safely to her house. I have picked her up from work, as well as her friends houses.

Mostly we’ve done small talk but she said she always felt good and safe in my car. She said she liked it when I picked her up. As you know I pray over my car everyday that the spirit of God will ride with me. I pray that the people who are in my car feel is spirit so that reaction doesn’t surprise me. The other part of it is that I tell people I shower and use deodorant which isn’t necessarily a given for Uber drivers.

One Tuesday I picked her up from work and we started driving her home. She is a waitress and she was going home early to ice her back. She was in an accident last year where somebody ran a red light and plowed into her which is why she uses Uber. She reiterated how comfortable she felt in my car and said that she wished I was her dad. Her mom and dad have been separated for many years after he had an affair and left the family. I took that as a compliment and an opportunity.

As we were driving we started talking about how crazy things keep getting for Uber drivers. I told her that sometimes I get downright distressed and depressed with some of the things I hear from the kids that use the service. I told her that one of the things that is most aggravating these days is how young women brag about their body counts ( in today’s vernacular “Body Count “is the number of people with whom you have had sex. ) I told her that there are a lot of reasons that this is just horrific.

We talked about the science of how it makes it very difficult for a woman who has a high body count to emotionally commit in a relationship. Then I said, this is one of the reasons is why God doesn’t want that behavior. It disrupts and destroys the family. She said that she and her mother could attest to that fact.

I asked her if it was OK for me to talk about the church and she said yes! I said the God gives us commandments to bless us and help us and keep us away from pitfalls. This would be a typical indication of what a pitfall would look like. It looks like fun but it’s a real pit. She laughed.

I told her that a lot of these women are just trying to bury pain and that’s why the church teaches the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I told her that Satan tempts a man to do evil and then he turns to his victims and tells them to blame God and the church. I told her that when people start taking this path they just keep going down that path. She looked at me and said, “Yep that’s right.”

I told her that God is there and saying, look to Jesus and he can lift your burdens and ease your pain.

I knew she had a hard upbringing and I talk to her about the cups of Kool-Aid and how you even them out versus how the Lord doesn’t worry about even they are, he just comes in with a new pitcher of Kool-Aid and fills everyone’s cup.

I told her that God is there and all we have to do is reach out for him. She said that so beautiful why don’t they teach that at church? I said they do! I said redemption and atonement is what the church is all about. I told her that the atonement is what God has given us so that we can make it through life focused on the things that are important not the things that damage us.

By this time I had figured out that she was a member of the church and the spirit was confirming that to me. She said, I was a member of the church when I was young but when all these things started to happen I couldn’t do it anymore. Right then the spirit indicated to me four things that have been problems for her with the church.

I had an understanding by spiritual prompting that these things were the reasons why she left the church. They are 1. she felt judged, 2. she felt unworthy because of a traumatic event in her life 3. she felt like the church was not inclusive (I felt like that was more of a smokescreen for her looking to find reasons not to like the church but it had become a huge issue), and 4.she didn’t pray.

I decided to start tackling these one by one.

I told her that part of the reason why she left the church was that she felt judged. She said I don’t know how you knew that but that’s true. I told her that she even felt judged when she drove by a church and there was nobody there. She nodded and said yes. I explained to her that Satan is in her ears telling her that she’s being judged and trying to get her to turn from Jesus and blame God. She said that’s true, wow.

I told her that everyone who goes to church has Satan telling them that they’re not worthy, that they can’t be clean, there’s no way they can be clean, there’s no way that they can be in the presence of God, that there’s no way they can pray, that there’s no way they can do these things because they’re not worthy. I told her that he also tells them that the people that are there are hypocrites and judgmental.

I said, to combat that, imagine the power of walking up to one of those people who you perceive to be judging you and put your arm around them while saying“ I want to thank you for being a good example for me, I need that!” She said, that would change everything. It’s just a different way of handling it. I said, this way you are fighting the perception that Satan is putting in your mind and you’re turning to the love of Christ and to heal the wound and come to Christ. She said, until today I had never had an application for the atonement like that explained to me.

I told her that the spirit had let me know that she had a traumatic event in her early life that she never told anyone about. I told her, you just don’t talk about it, you push it down. She started to cry and said yes. She asked, how do you know these things. I asked her how her Book of Mormon knowledge was and she said it was pretty good. I said do you remember Ammon? She said yes! He cut arms off! I laughed and said you’re right. I told her that after he cut the arms off of the robbers and the king had asked where he was. When they brought him in the king was blown away by his service. Then Ammon interpreted the words that were in the kings mind and heart because the king was so astounded by his service that he could not speak. When Ammon told him what was in his heart and mind the king said, are you God? Ammon said no, but God has sent me and given me your thoughts so that you can know that the words I say or from him. I told her, “same thing” she started crying harder.

I told her that the abuse that she had suffered was also covered by the atonement of Christ. If she would use it the burdens and pain of that abuse could be healed and lifted. I told her that the people with Alma who were captured and enslaved by the Lamanites were given horrible demeaning and physical tasks that were difficult but because they turned to Christ and his atonement they were blessed that their burdens were lifted to the point where they barely could feel them.

I said that’s the atonement. Christ fills every glass so that we are full and no matter what our circumstance or hardship he has felt it, he knows it and he can give us peace in our souls.

I told her this peace is what we’re all after. The spirit was really strong in the car, she was crying and I identified the spirit to her. I told her that she was her Heavenly Father‘s daughter and that she had a relationship with him that was very real and that she could feel it. I told her that she felt this for thousands of years before she was born and she was feeling it today in the car. I told her that is the spirit of God. She said I know that is the spirit of God. I told her God gives you his spirit so you can know whether or not things are of him.

I told her that the spirit was also telling me that she had concerns about the inclusivity of the church. I explained to her that when Jesus came to America he said still other sheep I have which are not of this land or the land of Jerusalem and that he was going to visit them. I explained to her that God is the God of everyone not just the God of Jerusalem and we are the only church that teaches the Jesus visited God‘s other sheep. I told her, “that’s all inclusive”.

I told her about baptisms for the dead which she had performed when she was young. I told her that those people were taught in the spirit world about the gospel but needed to be baptized to come home to their father. I told her that the reason why we do baptisms for the dead is to assure that every person no matter where they lived, no matter when they lived, no matter what color they were or sex they were would have an equal opportunity to be saved in the kingdom of their father in heaven under favorable circumstances. I told her that we are the only church the teaches that.

I asked, can you tell me of another religion that has doctrines so totally inclusive as these. The spirit was strong and she said no, that’s incredibly inclusive. God is the God of everyone and he loves us all, he’s our father. As she testified the spirit was very strong.

To round out the four issues she had that were prompted by the spirit I said, you don’t pray. You haven’t been praying and your heavenly father really wants to hear from you. She said, that’s way true.

The spirit was testifying in the car and I testified of the truthfulness of the church and how obedience to the commandments and obtaining and honoring covenants brings happiness so that we can have the spirit of our father with us.

I told her that she needed to fill that hole in her soul with the spirit of God that she was feeling in the car right now and she said yes I do. She said, it’s amazing how you knew all of those things about me. I went back to the Ammon’s story and re-emphasized that God gave Ammon those things to say so that the king would know that the words he said came from God. She said that’s right. I said why do you think that God gave me the things in your heart and your thoughts, it’s the same thing.

It clicked. You could see it in her eyes and then her countenance. She sat up and said you’re right! She cried some more. I told her that there’s a reason that God has been putting her in my car and it’s so that she could become at ease with me enough that we could have this discussion. I told her this is the reason she was in my car today. Through the tears she agreed.

I said, so what do we do with this? I said that she needed to pray and she said that she would.

I said, you need to go to church. I said find a ward and go there at least for sacrament meeting for a little while until you’re ready to jump all in. She smiled and said, that’s only one hour, I can do that!

By this time we had been sitting 15 minutes in her parking lot feeling the spirit and seeing the spirit of God give CPR to her soul. There’s no other way I can explain it. The way she sat up was like she sprung back to life with the realization that God loved her and he sent someone for her. He had sent someone to rescue her and she knew it. God had sent someone to show her how much he loves her and she felt that.

She got out of the car and walked into the house waving.

Given what she had been through in her life this young woman had put up walls and it took all of those other rides and good encounters to lower that wall and give her the confidence in me where the spirit could work through me to bless her. I’m just glad that the Lord gave me the opportunity to be his instrument.