What Are the Odds…

by Blair Evan Ball on September 22, 2011

What Are the Odds…

It was a warm fall day several years ago when we were moving into our home, being transferred from Houston to the Memphis area. As I continued to help the movers outside, a woman approached me to introduce herself to me as a neighbor down the street. Her name was Chris Blair and her husband is John Blair.
I proceeded to ask her to come inside so I could introduce her to my wife. I turned to Chris Blair and said this is my wife Christi, but we call her Chris at times, and I’m Blair. She laughed…and said you are so funny. Reality is that is our names.
We’ve remained good friends ever since.

What Are the Odds…

A couple of months later we were discussing Chris Blair’s mother who lives in Palm Desert, CA. When my wife Chris Ball chimed in that her father lived in Palm Desert, CA. When both talked to their respective parents, they discovered that they lived two blocks from each other, and knew each other.

What Are the Odds…

Fast forward to today. My wife is working now for John Blair, and gets a call from Chris Blair needing to find John. Their son is in dire need of assistance in a small town 1 1/2 hrs. Northwest of Austin, TX from where Danny lives. He has no phone, no money, and no wallet. Andy their son calls from a payphone and tells Chris (Blair) he is hitchhiking to Austin to get on the bus to come home.

My wife Christi (Chris) Ball tells Chris Blair that I (Blair Ball) have a good friend (Danny Smith) in Austin, let me call him. My wife tries to reach me and I’m in a meeting, she proceeds to go online, tracks down his website and finds his number and calls.

Danny is in a meeting, and says I’ll go find him, I’ll call you back in 5 minutes. My wife is in tears at this time, she cannot believe that (Danny) would jump out of a meeting and take off to find Andy. Where would Andy be? Would some hitchhiker already have picked him up at this point?

Danny calls my wife and gets a description of Andy and that he is in Elgin, TX. Danny is near Austin, and takes off for Elgin and arrives in around 40 minutes. When he arrives in town he notices on the opposite side of the highway is a man with a cardboard sign, but he cannot make it out because of the glare from the sun. Danny, crosses the highway and turns around and pulls up to this man. Rolls down the window, and the man thinking that he has stopped to give him a ride asks my friend Danny, could you take me to the bus station in Austin. Danny says…Andy I’ll be glad to take you. Andy in disbelief steps back and doesn’t utter one word for over 10 seconds. Andy then asks, how do you know who I am?

What Are the Odds…

Danny explains to Andy how all this came about. Andy had been trying to hitchhike for over 45 minutes and no one picked him up. Andy is on the bus now, and is scheduled to arrive at 8:30 this morning in Memphis.

Good friends like Danny Smith are hard to find. Danny is owner of RP2 Development, a coaching and consulting company to small business. He is also a certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach.

When you tend to get cynical about life, and people…think of Danny Smith.


Melinda Reed September 22, 2011 at 12:57 pm

Great Story – God always works, His timing!

Blair Evan Ball September 22, 2011 at 10:34 pm

Yes he does. Can’t explain it, but it was divine intervention.

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