It was a beautiful, fall day, lots of sunshine and a clear, blue sky. Earlier that day, we had done our morning chores and then went to church. We came home right after the service to go to work. Normally, Sunday afternoon is a time of rest for us, but on this particular day we had cornstalk bedding to put up for our cattle for the coming winter. The cornstalks were dry and ready to be put up, and we knew the good weather wouldn’t continue much longer. So we made the decision to do it on this day.

I needed to take a tractor down to the field to bring the chopper box loaded with bedding home with it. Joanne offered to come down to the field and get me so I wouldn’t have to walk home and get my other tractor and chopper. We had put in a long week just before this, so I would have really liked to have said, “Yes,” to her offer, but I declined because I knew she had a lot of work to do herself. I thanked her for her offer, but said I could walk home because I knew she had a lot to do.

With that, I got on my tractor, and drove it down into the field a little ways. I was really tired out from all the work the previous week. As I got off of the tractor and looked at the long walk home, it looked like a long, long ways to walk. So I quick said a prayer: “Lord, would you send somebody that would stop and offer me a ride back home?” Now, our road is a township road that doesn’t have much traffic on it, but just after I finished my prayer, a man on a very large motorcycle came around the corner, way up the road from me.

I got out to the edge of the blacktop road as he was about to go by; he stopped all on his own accord and asked me, “Do you need a ride?” And I hate to say this, but this is where my flesh got in the way. I had never ridden on this big of a motorcycle in all my life, and on the inside my flesh said, “I can walk home myself.” So, I responded to the man, “I can walk home myself.” To which he responded, “OK.”  He started to back his cycle out of my field driveway.

Then I thought, “Boy, did I blow it. I prayed and God answered, not quite in the way I expected, and now I rejected His answer. How can I expect God to answer my prayers in the future if I reject His answer now?” So, I did a real smart thing right there: I repented. The man on the motorcycle by now had backed out and was ready to continue his trip down the road. I called out to him, “Say, I would really appreciate a ride.” He looked at me bewildered, and rightly so. So I said to him again, “I sure could use a ride.” I thought, “Boy, do I feel foolish, but it’s better to put one’s flesh in its place than to offend God!”

With that, Ron backed his large cycle around the other way, which took a little to do, and then I got on. Traveling up the road, I told him to turn in at our building site. His response, “I can easily take you up the road 5 miles or more, that would be no problem.” I replied, “If you take me that far up the road, I will have a problem.” We turned into my farmyard and visited a little, and I thanked him for the ride. Then he left. I thanked the Lord also for the ride He provided.

We got a lot of nice, dry cornstalk bedding put up that day, for which we were very thankful. But, I’m even more thankful that I didn’t offend my Lord that day. I know He wants me to pray to Him, and I know He delights in answering my prayers, sometimes in the most unusual ways. I do have a problem though: Sometimes my flesh gets in the way, and it has to be put in its place, even if it makes me look kind of different at times. I would rather look different or strange than offend my Lord. I want and need my prayers answered.

Tom Heck, his wife, Joanne; and their two children own and operate a 35-cow dairy farm in Wisconsin. Contact him by email or order his book at his website.