Suddenly, a girl around my age comes up to me, smiling, and says, "Hi! Excuse me, I wanted to know if you have a phone I could borrow to look up directions?"
Usually when people ask to use my phone or something, my inclination is to say no. But she seemed to actually be in need of it, so I replied, "Sure!"
She sits down on a chair next to me, and says, "Thank you so much! For some reason, I can't get internet on my computer right now."
I pull out my phone and we enter in the location, and look at the directions. Before I can tell her the first step on the directions, she says, "I'm sorry, I'm not trying to read your journal or anything, but I noticed the word 'God' in there. Do you love Jesus?"
I look back at her, and reply, "Yes! He's awesome."
Now we're both smiling, and out of nowhere a conversation strikes up. For the next 5 or 10 minutes, we talk about which churches we go to, how God's timing works in mysterious ways that we don't understand, and how it's good to rely on Him through the confusing times. Then she writes down the directions, and we talk a little bit more. She asks what I'm writing, and I tell her. I find out that she wrote a book, as well. She tells me she went through a rough patch in her life and wrote the book, and what I'm thinking is, I hope God uses that book she wrote! That could be such a great ministry!
There are 4 other people on their iphones/ipads/computers, sitting in this Starbucks. She could've asked them for help; but she chose to ask me. I think it's awesome that she had the courage to ask a complete stranger for help, knowing how many unhelpful people there are in the world.
This girl goes to a different church than me, and I have no clue who she is, but we have one thing in common that I find to be totally awesome-- we both love and are following Jesus! I love the randomness of what just happened, because it was really cool to meet a fellow believer and to help her out in some small way. She helped me, too, just by being so kind and forthcoming about her faith. (Hope in humanity restored!)
God put her on my heart to pray for her. I don't know her last name, where she was going today or why, what's going on in her life, or any other details, but I know God is a part of her life and I praise Him for that! We all constantly have ups and downs in life, and wherever we're at, we can always use prayer. So I'm going to be praying for her, because God listens and I don't think I had this chance encounter with her for no reason.
And that just reminds me how awesome it is to be able to pray for people, especially those who are the body of Christ! It's become one of my favorite things to do this past year. If anyone reading this ever wants/needs prayer, no matter what for, I hope you'll share with me! The power of prayer is stronger than we even know.
I hope y'all have a blessed Memorial Day, and remember the price others have had to pay for our country's freedom. (Like the freedom to express how much we love Jesus with people!) But even more importantly, remember the price that Jesus Christ paid on the cross for our eternal freedom!
~Laurel
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