I had my eyes opened over the last week. Opened to the amazing community in Christ that God has given us access to. Even writing that and rereading it is giving me revelation in the people I will meet in the unexpected places over the next year. Last week I flew out to Calgary to do a favour and drive a vehicle home for my mom. My best friend and I took this opportunity and proclaimed, “Roady!” This was probably mixed with middle aged girl like giggles and excitement. The route that we would be driving home was approximately 38ish hours and included going through the States. We decided that it would be a great opportunity to see Chicago for a day or two (props Nate Longpre for the incredible deal on the hotel!). We stayed in Schaumburg after our 28 hours of straight driving and would take the 30 minute train ride into Chicago in the morning was the decision for our POA for seeing Chicago. Little did we know but God had made some pretty cool appointments for us the next day.
Bright eyed and bushy tailed we headed to the train station (which we caught by the skin of our teeth) and headed into the big city. We started discussing things that girls discuss – what was new, make up, hair, embarrassing things I won’t put here (our little secrets, Kel), work, and future stuff. I guess I was using some World Race lingo because the woman sitting on the other side of train politely interrupted and asked if we were discussing the World Race. I was immediately fired up. She went on to further explain that her husband (whom I’m pretty sure she kicked awake) was a first gen X squad member (Brandon and Sarah Forshall for those that are being killed with curiosity). Now I was really fired up. It was such a great opportunity for conversation about so many aspects of the race and such a blessing to run into them on the train. Pretty small world that we live in! I later got a message from the couple that they had felt God leading them to support me and committed to making a monthly donation. I was in awe of their obedience to giving to someone they literally just met and also in awe of God and the mysterious and wondrous ways that He provides for us. He’s a pretty fly guy in my opinion.
Kelly and I being in high spirits did some more walking through Chicago until we stumbled across a Gino’s and it became evident that we needed to stand in the hour long line to get a taste of this world class deep dish pizza (well worth the line wait and hour long cooking procedure by the way). As we waited in line we chatted a little bit to the people in front of us. One of the restaurant hosts came to the line and asked if there were any groups of 6 or more. All of a sudden we went from being a group of 2 to sitting at a table with these 4 other lovely people.
We had great conversation, lots of laughs, and learned a lot about these new people. It just so happens the girl sitting next to me was a worship leader and one of her close friends had just done the race as well. This was all just getting too funny to me. I had yet to meet one person outside of AIM organized events that had done the race and now I had run into 2 in one day… Awesome! I felt so encouraged by the great stories that were shared through her knowledge of her friends’ time on the World Race.
So God had made some pretty cool appointments for us that day with the run-ins we had with people, but there was one more trick up His sleeve. Art. Public art. Yup, you’re reading right. There was this pretty awesome public art piece set up that allowed for the public passing by to reflect on the world that we live in and then write what they would like this world to be like and how they would go about getting there.
To be able to see what God had placed on the hearts of so many and the goodness that is in this world was refreshing. There is no other word for it. There were blatant Christian messages being shared but there were also softer messages of Jesus’ love being reflected through some of these visions as well. It was a nice reminder that although we don’t always see the good in people, or our community, or our world – it is still there!
Kelly pointed out to me later in the day how cool it was that God was revealing His community to us. It was pretty cool meeting and being exposed to Christians around us without even looking. I really thought about this and how funny it was considering the time and energy I have put into trying to develop Christian connections on my own. It is God who makes these divine appointments for us. He knows when we need them and when to reveal them to us so that He is given the glory rather than us glorifying our own grunt work. Sometimes the most important appointments in life are the ones we don’t make ourselves.
