With soft spun hair like golden wheat and toothy smile that radiated warmth, she looked akin to a face one would see in the glossy pages of a magazine. I feel humble and somewhat frumpy in her presence though she may be the one in the wrinkled sweatpants. I liked her immediately. She, too, must have felt similar sentiments because she blushed when confiding her desire to be friendly.
But I left her spontaneous invitation suspended in the airwaves as I ran a thousand different responsibilities and commitments through my head. Writing deadlines sat heavy on my mind coupled with teaching notes yet to be made. I sent up a flippant prayer half expecting Jesus to answer. And it was with peace in my heart I stuck my flag in the camp of ‘people are always more important than precious deadlines’. So, I sat in a family room mere steps from my own and listened as she talked.
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Isaiah 42:16, I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.
It was the words she did use that left me speechless from my mouth yet whispering hurried prayers in my heart. I felt all the feels for the woman before me who was raised to believe that someone like myself would be sent to a life of eternal damnation because I was not conformed to the true church.
But it was my apparent devotion to Jesus- and only Jesus- that confirmed for her the years of doubts lingering in the forefront of her soul. Over her tongue and through her lips the word ‘brainwashed’ punctured the air with all the weight of a WWF throw-down. She was experiencing a full-on war within in believing everything she was raised to believe. Something wasn’t right in her estimation and it was meeting both myself and a few others with a devotion to Christ that projected her thoughts to her lips.
In my head I pictured the enemy, like a lion, searching the ground for his prey. Then I pictured the Savior, like a shepherd, searching for his sheep. Both on the hunt but for two very different reasons. Both very alive and active in this world. And it was just an everyday moment of life- sitting with a hot cup of tea listening to a new friend share her heart-that I recognized the truth that Christ did indeed prepare me for this moment. He prepares us for each and every assignment of leadership whether big or small. For no moment is small to Him. And He will never call the blind to lead the blind…
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