My life can be a little stressful at times and one of my favorite ways to decompress is to walk in a local park. Walking among the trees just makes me more peaceful.
Tuesday morning I had the opportunity to visit the park for a few minutes before my husband had to leave for work. I spent some time praying and thinking about all that I had to get done during the day.
I was almost ready to leave when I walked by a man sitting alone on a bench. He spoke to me, but I continued on without saying anything because we were alone in the park and he didn’t look particularly “safe”. A few steps later, I felt that God wanted me to go back and talk with him.
Reluctantly, I introduced myself and asked if he needed prayer for anything. He looked at me strangely and responded that he did indeed need prayer. I told him not to tell me anything, but just to let me pray and we would see what God would do.
After a few minutes, God began to show me that that this man felt like a failure and needed healing from emotional wounds he had received from his father. As we prayed, this huge hunk of a man began to cry and God began to bring freedom to him. I had to leave so my husband could go to work, but I continued to pray for him as I walked to my car and I am confident that God is doing a deep work in his life.
God also did a work in me. I am so quick to make my agenda for the day, and while it is important to be wise with my time, I need to consult God about what He would like for me to do. I was reminded once again, that I need to listen every day to make sure that I am doing the things on my Heavenly Father’s heart. I need to keep in mind that eternal things are what matter most, not my To Do list.
omg.. that made me cry. Beautiful post, thank you.
I got choked up while reading this post. Thank you for reminding me that we should make decisions everyday that have positive eternal consequences. Being in tune with the Holy Spirit helps us do that. God surely blesses those efforts.
I needed the reminder too. 🙂
I really appreciated this post! God Bless the heart that stops and looks and listens to God’s prompting! have a peaceful night!
Thanks Tracy. 🙂
It is always beautiful and inspirational to read of how God works through us even when we are reluctant. Thank you for sharing this, Kim. It has made my morning! Blessings to you and your beautiful family.
Thanks Sarah!
This message came at a perfect time for me. Thank you for the post!
You are very welcome Amanda!
Amen! So often we follow our own desires we forget about the things God wants us to do. In the end we end up completing nothing. God doesn’t just hand us our desires on a silver platter and turn away, especially if it isn’t something he doesn’t want for us. When we do Gods work we learn a little something new about ourselves every time.
A youth pastor I had once challenged us, every day we needed to do something for God that broke our daily routine, and every week we needed to do something for God that put us outside of our comfort level. He said all we had to do is pray and God would show us what he was asking for. God spent a lot of time working through me about advocating against bullying. For a long time I was afraid to speak out about my past, I was bullied to the point that my life was put in danger more than once, and one incident has caused me to suffer lifetime issues, all because I was poor and fatherless. After many long talks with my pastor and lots of prayer, I knew speaking out was what God wanted me to do. Public speaking goes way beyond my comfort level. I started with a sermon in church, but my principal attended my church and so it spread. He wanted me to speak at school, in an assembly, in front of the whole school. I said no at first, I fought God saying I couldn’t do this, it was too much. My pastor reminded me that God never gives us a mountain we can’t climb. So I decided to do it. Getting up in front of my entire school was horrifying. At first I started speaking from a speech I had written, but I sounded so informal, and I knew it would fall on deaf ears. So I stopped. I listened to the talking and something came over me. I yelled into the mic “Listen to me!” and everyone stopped talking. And then I shared my story, all the raw details that not many people knew. I talked about being pushed in front of a moving bus, about being stabbed in the eyes with pencils, about being chased home by people wanting to beat me up. Then I said “My bullies are sitting among all of you today. They seem like normal people, just like you and me, but years ago they caused damage to me that will never go away. They left behind physical scars, physical damage, a daily reminder of the past these people left me with. But more than that, the emotional scars. Instead of looking back and having good memories of my grade school years, I look back and can tell you so many horror stories it would be worse than a scary movie. And the bullying continues, I am no longer a victim of bullying, but I see it every day. I want all of you to stop for a moment, you are all in high school and starting to think of your futures. I want you to think about your children. What would you do if someone hurt them the way you hurt others? What would happen when the principal, the school, the board of education, even the police could do nothing about your child getting hurt every day. How would you feel? Think of these kids committing suicide. What if that becomes your child when there is nothing you can do to stop it?”
And then I just stopped. It was like I heard Gods voice in my head telling me to stop. For a while it was quiet, an awkward silence. And then one of my bullies actually stood up. She was pregnant at the time. And she came up to the podium and admitted to being a bully to me and to others, even now. And she stopped and started crying, saying when she thinks about her baby going through the things she put others through, it ripped her heart out. This was the bully who did the most physical damage, the girl who put my life in danger and caused me to have lifetime eye problems.
As a kid I wanted her to feel my pain, I dreamed of her coming to me begging for my forgiveness and my laughing at her telling her she got what she deserved. But that day I saw the real girl. And before she ever said she was sorry, I looked at her and said I forgive you.
I didn’t think I would make a difference, but there was a drastic change in my school that day. Sure there were still bullies, there will always be. But others were being accepted. People who you never would have believed could be friends became inseparable. People were no longer afraid to hide parts of themselves in fear of what others would do or say.
I never wanted to do what I did. I was afraid of being bullied more, or being laughed at, or ignored. I never thought I would actually reach someone or make a difference but God knew I would.
After that day I learned to stop telling God no. That even when I thought I knew better, He was right and I was wrong.
I’m glad you helped that man and I’m glad God made a difference in you both!
Wow Crystal–what a powerful story! I am so sorry that you went through everything that you did, but God truly turns what the enemy meant for evil into good–for us and for others. Thanks so much for sharing your story.
Love this post! Always so encouraging to see another believer following God’s prompting.