By Tammy Hale
On this particular day, I was ready for a little escape. The river has always been a place of peace and respite for me, so Chris and I decided to take the boat out on the Santa Fe.
With nowhere to be and with no reason to hurry, I took a short stroll along the riverbank. As I walked, I knocked a pebble into the water.
Plop.
In the quiet, I noticed a small ripple across the water. And then another. And then another. The ripples grew wider and wider, traveling farther and farther from where the pebble had landed.
But all too soon, it was back to reality, back to normal life in our hurry-up, rush-rush world.
I happened to be scrolling through Facebook, which I don’t do often because, you know, hurry-up, rush-rush, when I stumbled upon Car Line Devotions and Andi Ransom.
I knew Andi. But what was this Car Line Devotions?
In the middle of all that Facebook noise and negativity, there was something about her quietness that made me stop scrolling.
Suddenly, I realized I had joined Andi in her passenger seat. Her reading of Scripture gave me pause, but the way she related that Scripture to her life kept me sitting there, contemplating my own.
Then something else came to light. Andi had me paying attention to some of the good that can simply be missed in the distractions of life.
That inspired “What’s Good.”
Andi was meant to be the first story. Although I would have to wait to have a conversation with her, I decided to honor the inspiration and move forward.
It wasn’t long. And there was Andi. I was overjoyed to see her feeling better, back in her car reading Scripture. Time for our conversation.
So why Car Line Devotions?
“I just feel like there’s more for me,” Andi said. “I love the Lord and I want to serve Him.”
Andi admits to some self-doubt in the beginning.
“I am not worthy enough to do this. Lord, I do not know the Bible like that,” she recalled. “I am not the kid that got a piece of candy for memorizing every book of the Bible in Sunday school class.”
Still, she found herself wondering, “What can I do?”
“I’m just gonna get on, and I’m gonna read a devotion every day and call it done,” she said.

Then a friend asked a question.
Why do Christians take communion?
“I was like, I want to dive into this. I want to be able to explain to people why, not just because I told you.”
“I want to come off as loving,” Andi said. “They need to know that Jesus loves them.”
For those who may not believe or feel comfortable walking through the doors of a church, she wants them to know something else.
“He can relate to us on a human level,” she said. “If I can just take a Car Line Devotion and make somebody be like, ‘Geez, He can relate to me,’ that’s where I go.”
But Andi hoped Car Line Devotions would ripple further.
“I really want to reach the unbelievers, too. And so I just kept going. I kept praying about it.”
Recently, while enduring her own health struggles, Andi began to see just how far those ripples had traveled.
“I would go to the hospital, and these nurses that were not believers would be like, ‘I saw your video. I loved it. Good for you.’”
Andi is quick to point out, “That’s the Lord, not me. It’s not anything I’m doing. This is all God and all His works, not mine. And if the Lord’s gonna wake me up every day, why not use the day to do some good for Him?”
Sitting next to Andi, it was evident that seat wasn’t a place just for me. It has been reserved for all of us.
“I want it to be raw, and I want people to find it relatable,” she said. “I want it to be like you’re sitting there with me in the passenger seat, and we’re just talking.”
As Andi and I talked, we spoke about how things done in ordinary moments can make a difference to others without us ever knowing.
Then I asked if she realized the difference she was making.
“I don’t think I do,” she admitted. “I sometimes get hung up on it. And I’m like, I don’t think I’m doing enough.”
But the proof of her impact is closer than she could imagine. All she has to do is turn and look in the back seat.
Andi had an immediate answer when I asked what her boys thought about Car Line Devotions.
“Oh, they love it,” she said.
She laughed as she shared a moment with one of her boys after he came home from baseball.
“Mama.”
“What?”
“Remember He loves you, He cares for you and He wants to know you.”
The very words his mama uses to close her devotions.
They’ve made a few videos of their own, reading Scripture and sharing stories.
And where will Car Line Devotions go?
“I would love for it to grow and prosper,” Andi said. “But if He means for it to just stay here in our community…”
She continued, “There are people that need it here.”
God knows where Car Line Devotions will go. What I know is many of us keep looking forward to them.
Thinking back to that pebble on the Santa Fe, I had no idea how big those ripples would become or how far they would go.
And maybe that’s true of what we put into the world.
A Scripture shared. A little kindness. Encouragement. Acknowledgement. Gratitude. Grace. Love.
How far will our ripple travel?
God knows.
That’s what’s good.