Tracy, bless his heart, caught me extremely off guard this morning when he showed up at our parents home at 8:30. I am not much of a morning person, so even though I was able to be civil, I was hardly coherent. When I first saw this man's silhouette in the door it almost terrified me. He is an extremely tall man with a full beard and mustache. I didn't know anybody by that description!When I opened the door I was surprised to recognize him though and felt more at ease. Tracy had come 2 weeks before, wanting to test the air ducts and vents in our house for leaks and reduce our monthly electric bill. My parents had scheduled this inspection with his company weeks before. We had to send him away however, as it was nearing the end of our beloved Nan's journey to Heaven. He was very sweet and left us a card to call and set up a new appointment. I learned today just how far he had to drive to be turned away from that appointment and it was very merciful of him not to charge us for the gas anyway.
My mom rescheduled the inspection for 8:30 on this very 7th day of Lent, without whispering a word of it to me, so Tracy and I were both surprised this morning; me to see him at all, and him to be yet again unanticipated. I let him in to meet my giant dog who allowed Tracy to pet him but only if he could growl at every motion... even protecting can't get in the way of a good pat. While he set up all his crazy looking equipment, I went back in the bedroom to explain to Heather about our guest and put on a real outfit instead of my very frantically puzzled together collection of different clothing articles littered between the bed and the front door.
For about an hour I fought the dizziness of my antibiotics and the nausea that comes on strong in the morning and fades a little as I wake up. I tried to lay back down at one point but the pounding sound of Tracy walking through the house and the clanking of the vents as he worked were not allowing me to drift off. We sparked up some small conversation with Tracy between rooms and learned that he was a grad student planning to go into the peace corps soon with his wife. His job doesn't keep him in one place long so I gave up trying to talk to him on the run and sat down at my computer in the living room. Is he my fast? I asked for the first time.
I had no idea. I couldn't seem to break through formalities with him and he was in and out so much I couldn't see when I would get a chance to talk with him, if I did at all. If so God, make a way... open a door.
I decided to wait for him to finish with his work. He said he would be under the house until about 12:30... it was 11:00. I checked my e-mail, my facebook, my twitter... I was bored. Then God just kind of nudged me... Have you thought about the person under your house? You have a lot of time and nothing really to do.
I had not really. I thought wow, there is a person here and what I knew of him was that he, and his wife, had big hearts, wanted to change the world and would soon go into a difficult assignment helping the people of a third world country. I didn't know if they were saved. My conclusion from the things he had told me so far was, probably not. And it struck me that I had an hour and a half to just pour prayers over him while he worked. To pray for his family, his life, his heart, his wife, his job, his education, his time in the peace corps... anything and everything God laid on my heart to pray. I had never done that before. I had never thought to do that before. Not to that extent.
So I prayed. And when he came back upstairs I wanted to know more about him suddenly. I was more interested. Eager to know more and to share Jesus -in whatever capacity I could- with him. So I waited until he was getting ready to leave and started to ask him questions. Questions about his school, his life, his dreams... an avalanche of questions I'm sure it seemed. But he shared with me his heart for people and to be part of something he could change and make better. He expressed concerns about the Peace Corps but was glad for the opportunity to try to improve it from the inside out. Heather and I got to share our own heart for missions and ministry overseas.
He listened intently. Asked questions even! I got to share almost my entire testimony with him and how I had come to Christ and was doing Lent. Afterward he confessed, he wasn't a Christian and he actually had problems, even intense anger in some cases, toward religious ministries in other countries. He had heard of many abuses of power and resources and information in his studies and in his experiences. He told us a saying from an African tribe... "When the white men came they had their bibles and we had our land. They taught us to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them we had their bibles and they had our land."
Though shall not steal, I thought. "Not all people who come in the name of Christianity remember that we are called to love above all."
We got to share with him a movement of Christ-centered ministries that were doing more than telling people how to live, but also meeting their needs. We got to share with him that not every religious based group was honoring Christ's call to love their neighbor but that there were ministries that were inside that were working with people and as advocates for those who were vulnerable to being taken advantage of. We got to share with him Christ who came to save the world, NOT a false representation of a prophet that came to condemn it... a Christ who's commission to us was to first Love God and then Love our neighbors.
I kept thinking, he is going to get up and walk out of here. But he didn't. He stayed and listened to us and spoke with us long after his work was done. That conversation made me realize the false representation of Christ and Christians not only in the world and overseas ministries, but in the education system! It made me realize that God can make Himself known anytime, anywhere... even in a somewhat repaired, semi drafty living room, in a conversation with a zealous girl, who is learning not to let her fears get in the way of all that Christ wants to do in her and through her, even if she feels less than adequate.
Its not me God! Its You!!! It is You!!! I get it! I got it! Thank You!
I gave him my e-mail at the end of our conversation and told him to please write if he needed
anything or was looking for support or had any prayer requests. "Thanks," he said with a grin, "and I will let you know if I see any openings for ministry opportunities around."
It was a seed.
One of the coolest realizations was that God was planning the fulfillment of my Lenten offering weeks before I even knew I was going to do it! While my nan was still on earth my mom, who would never make an appointment for earlier than noon, was making an 8:30am appointment for a time when she would not even be here. He knew, before I even had a stomach infection, that I would be on an antibiotic that would knock me out like this one has. He knew before I started taking the antibiotic, that I wouldn't be able to go out to do my fast, so He brought it right to my living room air vent! I could explode with the indwelling of love and provision and care and joy that Christ has brought into His home... my heart! That he has been cultivating there until it has begun to grow out of the cracks and windows and doors in an overflow of living, moving, breathing LIFE!
He has a the most AMAZING way of orchestrating the symphony of our lives!
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