Not My Proudest Moment

When Meg Herriot lost her wallet after a morning of prayer, she found a lot of unexpected goodness.

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 emailed 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."

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I didn't understand why God had let me lose my wallet. But I'm quite confident He knows why. #catholicmom

I shared the story with my parish group to follow up. I told them, yes. I did find the wallet, and thanked them 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.