I've had severl of those God-ordained encounters with people when you just know that God has called the two of you together for a season. One of the most evident examples of those is my dear friend Heather who lives in Texas. We met via Beth Moore's blog two and a half years ago when BM published her "So Long Insecurity" book, which I highly recommend if you haven't read it. We have only met once outside of our countless emails and that happened last January at the Siesta Scripture Memory Team Celebration in Texas – after spending a year memorizing verses together, keeping each other accountable, and going through so much (including her engagement, marriage, and pregnancy, not to mention my school and tons of other milestone events!). It was a God encounter, A God-ordained friendship. It still is and I could never ever explain all that she has done for me or how I have been blessed by her in so many ways over the past few years.
Well, it's happened again. Let me tell you this story. I have been involved in Relay for Life for eight years at LEAST. All through college I have been involved with the committee (Berry has their own Relay – we're awesome..like for real). This year was bittersweet for me for so many reasons, but I loved it. My "Beth's World Race" t-shirts had come in a few weeks before the event so my best friend, Sarah, was wearing hers the night of Relay (you know, in case someone saw it and wanted to buy one of course). Well, we always have Shorter University join us at our Relay because we're all about uniting the Rome community together. This one girl from Shorter walked past Sarah and I while we were talking about some aspect of the evening, I'm sure, or just observing all the purple (everywhere, like purple vomit). She stopped, backtracked with the guy she was with, and asked Sarah "are you going on the World Race? Is that a Race shirt?" Sarah said, "Yeah! Well, no, I'm no going, but she is!" and pointed to me. This girl finally introduced herself halfway through the conversation as Ally Blackwell. I was pretty taken back because she is a super enthusiastic person and I was exhausted. She was practically pouring her heart out about her crazy decision to do the Race (a July route) and how crazy it is that we're in the same town and how she'd already stalked my FB page because that's what you do when you find out there's someone near you going on the Race (it's true…I did it).
We didn't really talk after that freak conversation at Relay for Life in March (yes – in MARCH, y'all!) until a few weeks ago when God put me on her heart. Come to find out, she has struggled with so many of the things I'm struggling with right now (including separation anxiety from our beautiful Rome).
Can you say GOD THING any louder than that is screaming right now?
I am so thankful for God blowing my mind with chance encounters of the heavenly kind. You have no idea how this girl has blessed the fear out of me in the past few days. She has spoken (or typed) with a wisdom that only comes from our Big Daddy.
So Ally, thank you – thank you thank you for pouring your heart out, for turning around on the track just to creep on my best friend's shirt. Thank you for listening to GOD on your heart all those months ago just for such a time as this. God's encounters are the best kinds.
For more on Ally's Race check out her blog here: allyblackwell.theworldrace.org
