If you wait until you can afford to have kids, you most likely will wait a long time. If you postpone going to college until everything is just right, you will never get a degree. And if you delay serving other people until your own life circumstances are just right, you may forfeit the privilege of giving of yourself to others.

Last night shortly after midnight we drove through Clinton, OK. Clinton is a mid-sized Oklahoma town just north of Interstate 40. Years ago old Route 66 went through the Clinton area. It is not a place that I would choose to visit for any length of time. Clinton is not exactly West Palm Beach, FL. But my family has very fond memories of Clinton, OK.

Eleven years ago we were driving through Clinton after attending a reunion, when our Suburban decided to have acute engine failure. My entire family was stranded on the side of a fairly desolate road late on a Sunday afternoon. Our youngest son was only two years old. I took off walking, because there was no cell service where the Suburban decided to call it quits. Before I got too far a lady driving in the opposite direction happened upon us.

She stopped. And she immediately offered to drive us into Clinton. I had been working with law enforcement officers for eight years in 1998. I wanted to tell her: Don’t let us get in your car! My family could be a cover for my ominous motives.
I knew she was a decent person. I read people pretty well…

She took us into Clinton. In fact, she took us to her home. I called a friend and he agreed to rescue us. I called a wrecker service and told him that the Suburban needed to be admitted to intensive care immediately. We met other members of her family. We even met her mother. You see her mother was terminally ill. The family was caring for her at home with the assistance of Hospice.

I felt so humbled. I was ticked off about an uncooperative Suburban. I was mildly inconvenienced that Sunday afternoon. The lady who took us to her home had real problems. She did not let her personal concerns impede her from being a Good Samaritan. We would have been tickled if she would have just driven us to town, where the cell phone service was decent. She treated us like we had been neighbors for years. I learned a valuable lesson back in 1998… You don’t have to wait until your personal circumstances are in order to make a difference in another person’s life. We could not help but smile as we drove right outside of Clinton, OK last night. It is not West Palm Beach, FL, but it is a pretty special place for my family.