A couple of weeks ago, my mom and I went to pray outside of an abortion clinic. It had been a while since I had done this because there is no parking nearby where you aren't at risk of being towed. My mom calculated that our walk was about a mile, though I don't think it was quite that bad.
It was a walk along a VERY busy road. We made it to the area with other prayer warriors and prayed a rosary. We then headed back to the car. I had to run an errand next, so we went on to my next stop, where I realized I couldn't find my wallet. I hoped and prayed that I was being absent-minded (like the day before when I had left my wallet at home when I was at the doctor's office). I knew in my gut though, that the wallet was somewhere along the busy road. I went through a series of emotions, frustration and anger with myself, questioning whether I'm starting to have cognitive dysfunction (my husband had tried to gently suggest this might be the case and then I reminded him I'm a working mother who has a lot of stuff going on and I'm pretty sure undiagnosed ADD).
I also questioned God. Certainly not His existence, but His reasoning. Seriously? Seriously you are going to let me lose my wallet when I got up early on a Saturday morning to do something that is not popular in the area and I'm going to get chastised for? Of all times to lose a wallet, when I'm trying to be charitable? I changed my prayer and said, "ok, it happened, now what are you going to do? I'm waiting for you to bring some good out of this...." I then prayed to St. Anthony. I then e-mailed all the people in our parish Respect For Life group to please pray for St. Anthony's intercession for me (and to see if anyone had happened to pick up a wallet).
I went back to the busy street and re-combed the area along with my mom. No wallet.
I went home and decided I needed to eat lunch, because despair is better with food. I resolved after eating to look up all the things I needed to cancel or get replaced.
I received a call from REI. While that might not seem strange, it was strange. I hadn't ordered anything. I listened to the voicemail. Apparently someone was trying to frantically get a hold of me because they had found my wallet. I called REI and got redirected through a few confused people and got a hold of the customer service representative who had called. She was excited! "There's a woman who's trying to get a hold of you because she said you left your ENTIRE wallet, with like your whole life on the side of ____ road!". "Yes, yes, you are awesome," I replied. She then gave me the woman's contact info to get a hold of her. She sounded very excited and pleased to make my day.
I contacted the Good Samaritan and picked up my wallet. She had told me she didn't want to send it in the mail and she had tried to get a hold of me by contacting my bank but they only froze my card.... She saw my REI membership card and thought she'd give it a try. I'm sure grateful she did. She did what a lot of people wouldn't do. Not that many people would steal a wallet, but to go through the extra work and brainpower to try to track me down. She wouldn't accept a reward. She just simply said, "I've been in your situation before, this is what you do."
I shared the story with my parish group to follow up. I told them, yes. I did find the wallet, and thank you for praying for the intercession of St. Anthony. I thought of how the woman at REI got to be a hero today, in a time when people are stressed and quite frankly cranky to customer service representatives (and veterinarians). I thought how the young mom who helped me got an opportunity to make a generous gesture and I thought of the opportunity of the parish group to come together in community for prayer (even as mundane as a lost wallet) and see a positive result. I didn't understand why God had let me lose my wallet (from a zipped pocket, nonetheless). But I'm quite confident He knows why and I'm reminded the next time I want to question His ways, I just need to pray for His Will.
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