Selling Books Door to Door
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When I was just out of High school, I got a job selling books door to door. It was something that I had never really done before, but I believed that I could do it and wanted to give it a try.
I have always been optimistic. My mind will always focus on solving the problem in front of me instead of the problem itself. You could say that I spend my thoughts thinking about what I can do to fix the problem…. It’s a type of thinking where I see my cup as half full, not half empty.
I really had a lot of confidence that I could sell, and at the same time, it would give me a chance to get out of my parents’ house and do something on my own. Kids eventually need to take that step out to be on their own. This is where parents find out how influential they have been between the time of the early years and when they became an adult.
They say that everyone has “influence potential.” Is it your ability to influence someone else? You either influence others for Good or you influence others for bad? Some people are more influential than others, but we all have this ability if we will use it… I will save this for another post.
While selling my books, I remember getting a list of referrals from an individual, and I began to work through this list in an effort to make a connection and see if I could sell them something. One morning, I decided to follow one of the contacts that I had, which appeared to be out in the country some distance from the town where I was working. We didn’t have GPS back then, and so I was working off a map that I had of the surrounding city.
As I got further away from the city, I began to notice that I was in the middle of several large farms that were almond orchards. Beautiful rows of trees, and I noticed that the houses were separated from each other by several miles. Many of the areas were lined with barbed wire fences and water channels for irrigation. If you didn’t have a good map, you could easily get lost, as there was nothing but trees. The roads went somewhere, but you couldn’t see anything as you were swallowed up by trees.
When I finally got to my destination, I pulled into the driveway and looked around. It appeared as if no one was home. It was a simple rambler-style home with a large glass window in the front. Even though it was mid-morning, I could see that there were no lights on in the house from the split in the curtain that hung over the large window that allowed me to still see a small portion of the living room. Everything was still and quiet. I could see nothing moving, and everything appeared to be in a picture-perfect still.
Having determined that this stop would likely be a no-show, I decided to get out of the car and at least try to ring the doorbell and check. I did not grab my set of sample books because I felt that no one was home and didn’t want to waste my time carrying them up to the house.
I walked up the three small cement steps that led up to the door, and looking around, I found that there was no doorbell, so I knocked loudly on the front door. No one answered. I then knocked a second time using a little more force than the first time, again making a loud sound as my knuckle hit the door. Again, there was no answer.
It looked as if I would probably have to come back another time. So as I turned around to go back towards my car, standing directly in front of me at the bottom of the 3 cement steps was what I could best describe as a large grey wolf. Surprise!
Well, they say that when you fall into a type of panic mode, your mind likes to speculate. And mine certainly did. I have been around a lot of big dogs in the past, but never had I seen anything this big, and on top of it, this animal didn’t like the fact that I was standing on its owner’s porch.
I quickly noticed something that I had never experienced before: that this wolf was keeping me in check as it wouldn’t let me move from one side to the other, and so I stood still as we looked at each other. I could tell that I was in a bad spot with no place to go. I couldn’t yell for help as the neighbor was likely miles away and wouldn’t hear me. I couldn’t run to my car as it was too far away, and so feeling the door knob behind me, I carefully tried to turn it to see if the door would open. It was locked.
Now I am not the kind of person that would walk into anyone’s house without being invited, but this situation presented me with what I felt was no other option; and if I had to stay there all day long until the owners came home, I would gladly wait patiently rather than take my chances with the alternative. At this point, I didn’t care if there were consequences for walking to someone’s home that I didn’t know. I wasn’t there to steal anything or cause anyone any harm. I was there to sell some books. But none of that mattered as the door was still locked.
By this time, the animal was beginning to bare its teeth as it moved carefully forward to where I was standing. So, I did the only thing that I could do, and that was to try and slide myself in the 6” space that was between the flimsy screen door and the solid door that was locked behind me and I panicked when I couldn’t fit into that small space no matter how hard I tried.
One thing that I have always had throughout my life was a strong belief in God. And it wasn’t uncommon to find myself talking with him in prayer every so often about various things as I would go throughout my day. In this very second, where I felt trapped with no place to go and with no options at my disposal, I did the only thing that I could do, and that was to call out “Lord, God; Help me!”
Instantly, I felt someone standing behind me. It was the kind of feeling that you have when you’re best friend comes up behind you, you don’t turn to look at them because you just know that they are there.
This was the case with me at that time. I had my visitor. I couldn’t see them, but I could feel their presence standing behind me. At the time that my visitor appeared, I felt a complete calm come over me from my head down to my toes. This stood out to me because before, I was in a full panic, and now I was perfectly calm.
I was then led out from standing behind the flimsy screen door by a pull on my shoulder so that I was standing in the middle of the small cement porch directly in front of the grey wolf; something that I would never have done on my own.
Not only was there a change that came over me, but there was also a change that came down upon the wolf. The countenance of the animal had completely changed. The growling stopped; the stalking stopped. He began to act like a little puppy. I could see from his eyes that he wasn’t looking at me, but at the person who was standing next to me. Who this person was, I do not know, but I know that they stood there beside me and that they had the power to change the precarious spot that I found myself in.
Then, I heard a voice instruct me to pick up “that rock,” as my eyes instantly looked down at a large rock at the bottom of the cement steps that was sitting on the ground. There was no question as to what “rock” they were talking about. To my amazement, I stepped down the steps, right next to the wolf, and picked up the large rock. This was no small rock. It was about the size of my entire fist.
I was then instructed to gently toss it out into the middle of the lawn, and as I did, the wolf happily ran out to get it as if we were playing an extremely fun game of fetch. As the wolf leapt out to get the stone, my visitor told me to take 3 steps towards my car and then to stop and wait until the wolf would bring the rock back to me and drop it at my feet. I was told to continue to follow this process until I was safely inside my car with the door shut.
And so, we started to play fetch. And each time I would toss the rock out, I would proceed to take 3 steps towards my car and then stop and wait for the wolf to bring the rock back, and once again drop it at my feet. The wolf kept going out to get that rock each time I would toss it out into the lawn. It took about 4 times before I was actually able to reach my car, and on the final throw, I opened my car door, climbed inside, and closed it.
To my surprise, at the time that the door closed, the wolf stopped going after the rock and snapping out of its puppy-like state, turned and rushed my car, jumping up to the glass window and violently barking as if to was seeking to get at me and to bite whatever it could.
Quickly, I started my engine and pulled out of the driveway as fast as I could, with an unrelenting wolf continuing to go after my car. As I left the property, I remember seeing a warning sign on the front gate that I had not read when I pulled into the driveway.
All I could think of was that God had protected Daniel in the Lions Den, and that if he could save me from the jaws of a wolf, then he certainly could have saved Daniel from the mouths of those Lions. And the scripture kept ringing in my ears: “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”