What happens when you cut God off? I think I found out.

Yesterday morning, on my way to work, I was worshiping God and wondered where He would have me go at lunch. I heard the word ‘down.’ Immediately, I thought of walking down the street towards downtown and didn’t like that idea, so I ignored it, until later.

At lunch, I walked out to the corner and heard the word ‘down.’ I looked down the street and thought, “I don’t want to walk down there. I always go to the park,” so I ignored it and crossed the street. Before I got to the other side, I heard the word ‘down.’ I was like a little kid stomping my feet and saying, “No!” I kept walking. I only took a few steps, and I heard ‘down’ again. I stopped. As much as I didn’t “want” to go, my heart wanted to follow God, and then I thought about it: I hadn’t really ASKED Him, only heard the word ‘down’ and got an attitude, so I decided to ask and listen.

As I stood there with my eyes closed and my head down, I asked the Holy Spirit, “Where do You want me to go today?” He said, “Down towards the homeless people.” Oooooooooh…when you walk into the park off of Juniper and go down, you’ll find a whole bunch of tables, where the homeless camp. I guess I kept cutting God off and only heard the ‘down’ part. Well, I listened and followed and had the most amazing time on my lunch!

There were a couple of people at a picnic table, so I sat down and joined them (and THEN asked if I could). It was funny. It made me laugh. The woman’s name was Heather; I had met her before and remembered her name. The man’s name was James. He’s from Haiti but grew up in Brooklyn. They didn’t know what to make of me, but they didn’t want me to leave, so I stayed, and we talked.

James used to be in the military, has a grown son, and, at one point in his life, professed to be a god. He knew parts of the bible, parts of Scriptures. He was raised Catholic but walked away from religion. Now, he has the outlook that someday he will die, so he might as well have fun, and to him, being bad is fun, so I explained my kind of fun, and he listened.

It was so good to disagree and be accepted. As I looked across the table at Heather, my heart broke. She was slumped over, could barely open her eyes, and almost chain-smoked. As she listened to us go back and forth with our lives, she would join in. One time, she said, “”I” used to sell my body, too, but then I met Jesus.”” Through talking with her, I found out she was only thirty-four years old. She looked A LOT older than that. She talked a little about her abusive father. I wondered if I should pray for her and felt that the Holy Spirit wanted me to wait until she and I were alone, so I look forward to Him setting that up.

After about fifteen minutes, her husband, Ian, walked up. He was so drunk, cussing…really upset about the way he had been treated at the medical center. He had been unable to receive help over the phone, so he went down there. He complained about how fast they were at helping him, not fast because they were efficient…fast because they wanted to please him to get him out of their medical center. He said that’s how they’re normally treated. Their prescriptions are filled so fast, so that they don’t disrupt the “other” people (“…the REAL people,” he said). He was hurt.

I introduced myself, and during my entire time there, I spoke about Jesus a lot. When I share about the past, I share about the present, so He’s always mentioned. One of the neatest things that happened was how Ian sobered up right in front of my eyes. I knew it was because ‘the Kingdom was at hand.’ I asked them all if they played sports in high school and watched them revisit their younger years. I found out a lot about them. It was so cool, and then, a young kid came up, and Ian was VERY happy to see him. I soon learned why.

Michael was only twenty-four years old and seemed to be a “supplier” in their lives. He dropped a pack of cigarettes in the middle of the table and invited all of us to smoke…even me. Then he handed Heather a twenty dollar bill to pick up pot. We started talking a little, and I told him about how I had quit doing a lot of things years ago and talked about how I had kids his age. Then, he asked Ian about his health, so Ian started to explain his recovery.

As he was talking, I said, “Do you have any other pain? I’ll pray for you. God’s in a good mood and loves to heal.” He said he was good but asked for prayer for his living situation. I began to pray, and when I said Jesus, he said, “Man, I like your style. She keeps talking about “J.” That’s what we’re all about (he motioned to him and his wife), not him (he motioned to James).”” He just lit up. It was so cool.

I talked with them all about playing the drums and worship flags. They wanted to see the flags, so I showed them. Ian was so excited. He said, “Let me get my drum, so you can dance with them,” but it was late and nearing the end of my lunch. They talked about how, every Sunday, a lot of people gather in that area and play drums. I would like to go to THAT someday!

I’m so glad that I stopped to ask God where to go and to listen to His FULL direction. As they said good-bye, they welcomed me back any time. There’s so much gold in people. Their value has been buried. I love watching God remove the lies. He WILL reveal to them their created value. Oh, I almost forgot. At one point near the end, I asked James for his hand. He gave it to me, so I held it and began to pray into him. He got all woozy. Then, he held my hand and said the Lord’s prayer. Seeds were planted, will be watered, and God will continue to grow His army. It’s so exciting!!