It started so innocently.  Waking up to a sunshiny Sunday morning.  Preparing for worship.  Making sure I had my music, my water bottle.  Everything I needed.

Then I realized I was running late.

I didn’t have time for my regular breakfast, so I quickly whizzed a chocolate protein smoothie and brought it with me.

I drank some of it between vocal warm-ups, and brought the rest into church.  I took a big sip right before we started the service, and…bop!  A blueberry that had somehow missed getting blended ended up hitting my top lip, coated in thick chocolate.

I rushed to get it off my lip before we started singing.  Ok, not going to drink that again.  Too risky.

Now it’s after church, and I go to the grocery store.  My usual thing.  When I come out and start to put the groceries in the car, I see a large brown wet spot on the outside of my tote bag.

“Oh no!” I quickly pull out my bible and music.  And see that the bottle somehow opened and tipped over, spreading a brown sticky liquid mess all over the bottom of the bag.  Getting on everything

I drive home, bring the groceries in, put the cold ones away, and then start to tackle the mess.  Bible?  Ok.  Music binder?  Filled with chocolate smoothie.  But all the paper is inside plastic sheets, so no permanent damage.  Easy to clean up.  Whew!  So far so good.

Now I’m down to the stuff at the bottom of the bag.  2 Irish flutes, a pair of glasses, some paper, and bag of cough drops.  I see chocolate all over them, so I bring them over to the sink.

Ugh!  One of them is so coated with the stuff that it’s dripping.  And I didn’t see that.  So now the chocolate makes a trail of brown drips from the bag to the sink.  Even worse, huge blobs of the stuff drop on my white pants and white jacket.

I drop the bag stuff and immediately try to get the chocolate off my clothes.  Fortunately, it comes off with a bit of elbow grease.

I put on an old t-shirt and ripped jeans and go after the chocolate-coated glasses and flutes.  I eventually get everything clean and drying on the kitchen counter.  And the tote bag is drying in the bathroom shower.  It takes about an hour, but all’s finally back to normal.

So now I load the car to go to the dump.  Something I was planning to do and got waylaid with the chocolate caper.  I’ve got stuff that I don’t want to keep for the next week, so really want to get rid of it today.

I drive to the dump, and the guy is closing the gates.  What?!  I thought they closed at 4:00.  I see the sign says 2:00 on Sunday.  And it’s almost 3:00.

I drive to the next turn-out and turn around.  Trying to resign myself to the fact that I’m going to have to keep this smelly garbage in the garage longer.

Except that the guy is flagging me down.  I roll down the window and he asks me if all I have is garbage.  When I say yes, he opens the gates back up and waits for me.  He even volunteers to open the garage door for me if it’s too heavy.

I quickly hurl my stuff into the dumpster.  I’m so relieved and grateful.  When I go to drive out, I thank him profusely.  He then says this, “I had left and got to the end of the street.  Then I realized I hadn’t closed something, so I came back.  Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been here.”

What were the chances that guy would even be there almost an hour after they closed?  And greater still, that he would go out of his way to help me after a long hot day at the dump?

And then he went one step further.

“Want me to spot the traffic for you so you can pull out around my truck?”  And then he did that too.

Here I was having “one of those days”, when things just don’t seem to go right.  When my schedule got off.  Where I got chocolate on my good clothes, my church bag, and a whole bunch of other stuff.  And then this man I don’t even know goes and does something small, and also unexpectedly kind.

It completely changed my day.  My day went from “one-of-those-days” to a wonderful day.  All because of a simple act of kindness and generosity from the man at the dump.

I was so grateful.  I still am.

I want to be like that guy.  I want to be that generous.  I want to look for opportunities to help someone and make their day.

Has someone ever extended that type of kindness to you, and it turned your day around?  Share your story in the comments.