On Thursdays I usually take a little while in the morning to research and read to help me develop our training for our teams. Earlier today I actually retreated to the local Starbucks to get a little peace and quite from the office and get a chance to read a little of the book, Scattered Servants, which our pastor from NI has just released.
I got a little way through before I began to sense the gut feeling I came to recognise while we were in NI as God’s provocation that my peace and quiet was probably going to be disrupted. I pulled my nose out of the book and lifted my eyes to see who God may want to highlight. With a slight relief I sensed Him saying just to wait, and for a short while I half read the book and half watched the room, until I noticed a man in his mid 50s walk in and order his coffee. I was just considering how to get up and initiate conversation in some way when he made it easy for me and asked if he could sit at my table, it was lunchtime so tables were beginning to become short in supply. I of course invited him to sit and I introduced myself. We made awkward small talk, until he asked me what I was reading. I explained a little of what the book was about and he told me that he had grown up in a muslim family. Without much prompting he began to open up about the difficult childhood he had experienced and abuse he had suffered at the hands of his father. I sensed God was all over this meeting but was a little confused when his story turned to how he had converted to christianity in his twenties and experienced all sorts of miracles in his life also.
I’ll be honest I was slightly disheartened and began to cast my eye around the room wondering if maybe I’d got the wrong guy. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that God wanted to do something, so I did my best to keep the conversation going while I waited for God to make what he might want to do clearer. Nearly out of small talk I started to wind the conversation up, until all of a sudden he opened up again about how despite following God for many years of his life, several years ago he had sidelined his faith and by his own admission began to pursue a mid life crisis of partying and poor choices. Those choices ultimately resulting in divorce, house repossession, loosing his job and hitting rock bottom. He continued to explain a couple of weeks ago he had cried out to God in repentance and returned to church and was trying to find his way back to following God again. In that moment I began to sense God stirring me to offer to pray for his relationship with his children, so as sensitively as I could I apologised for getting personal but asked how his relationship with his children was and If there might be anything I could pray for, with a sudden sadness in his eyes he opened up about how his daughter was an active part of her church but had struggled with his absence and their relationship was distant, a fact he was clearly pained over. After I prayed and invited God to bring life and restoration to their relationship he told me he had specifically cried out to God that morning in desperation for reconciliation with his daughter.
Just thought I’d share the story and one of the questions I began to process and reflect afterwards this afternoon. What might our neighbourhoods, towns, cities, nations look like if wherever we set foot we dared to follow Jesus’ example and show up and love our cities to life?