So today I learned what real radical love of God looks like.
Our day began on Monday at 2am after a restless night. I had slept for exactly 2 hours that night (which was more sleep than most of the squad had going into our travel day!) and almost 9 hours later, we arrived in Miami. Our flight was supposed to leave at 1am on the 8th, so we had 14 hours to explore Miami, the PERFECT opportunity to explore a new city! We went with John Sanchez, a native to city on our squad, to see some of the sights. We ate a much needed lunch at a Cuban restaurant and our waiter happened to be from Colombia! We chatted with him and he shared his love for his home country with us, as well as a brief glimpse of his love for Christ. After we were finished, John gave him some loving words of encouragement before we left. We took a little adventure to Marshalls to get some supplies we forgot, and then headed into the beach. When we got to the beach, I just flopped on the sand to soak up the sun. I didn’t care that I was wearing jeans, a long sleeved shirt and hiking boots. This place was just so beautiful and I needed to take a moment to soak it in.
We then continued to walk around and take pictures of us in front of the stunning Miami backdrop and then decided to go a different route. We decided to go visit Bayside, where John had spent a lot of his time growing up. We got to see the place where some of his most cherished memories occurred, and that was such a sweet thing to witness. I feel like I know him a lot better now, which is really awesome.
After that, we decided to get dinner at McDonalds of all places, but man, God was at work. While we were ordering food, a homeless man walked up to Nick, one of our squad leaders, and asked if he could order him food, and of course, Nick obliged and got him some chicken strips. We then invited the man to sit with us and Nick was asking him about his life and his story. He told us his name was Miguel and that his parents both died when he was 5 in a drive by shooting in New York City where he was living. He lived in a foster home, and then he was living with a woman in Miami, but she kicked him out, and he had been living on the streets for a few years since then. Because he was put in the system at such an early age, he doesn’t have any identifying documents, and he can get them recovered, but it would cost a little bit of money, but just by getting a new ID, he would be able to move into a shelter at least so he wouldn’t have to keep living on the streets. We were so moved by his heart and his story that we decided to give him a little bit of money to be able to get his papers. He didn’t even ask for it, but we knew we could give him enough to get his feet on the ground again.
Then, the Holy Spirit started to move in an incredible way. Miguel was so moved by our gesture that his tired face filled with light and joy. He then stood up, took off his jacket, and told us he was gonna share some truth with us. He then proceeded to recite Psalm 91 for memory. It was truly beautiful to watch his transformation in that moment. Where he was previously slouching and mumbling, he was now standing tall and speaking scripture so eloquently it brought us to tears. In that moment, I saw an image of Miguel standing in front of a church congregation sharing his story and preaching truth to hundreds of people. I thought about telling him, but I brushed it off. As we were leaving, Nick gave him an encouraging word and we made our way outside to get back to the airport.
We got a Lyft to take us back to the airport and met our driver, Rafael. Rafael was very kind and spent most of the car ride telling his story to Michael, who was sitting in the front seat next to him. I was in the back, so I couldn’t hear most of the conversation. I heard him ask some small talk questions, asking where he was from and other things like that, but then after that, Rafael just started pouring out his soul to Michael, telling him about his marriage, his past, and his faith journey. Once we finally arrived at the airport, Michael felt the Holy Spirit leading him to pray for this man, so once we parked the car, we all prayed for Rafael.
And then the strangest thing happened.
As soon as I closed my eyes to pray, I saw an image of a young girl with a dress and pigtails. Her back was facing me, so I couldn’t see her face, but she must have been about 10 years old. I felt like the spirit urging me to share this image, but I thought it was so random that I didn’t want to embarrass myself by sharing this image with this man for him to just look at me like I was crazy. We finished our prayer and the image vanished as we exited the car.
As we were walking back to where our group had set up camp (literally) I asked him more details about what Rafael had shared with him. Michael said he talked to him about his marriage and his family because he felt the Holy Spirit urging him to ask him about family. At one point, he asked if Rafael had kids, and Rafael said no. Michael had then asked if he wanted kids and he said yes. He wants a girl, but his wife wants a boy, but they are still trying.
In that moment, I realized that those thoughts I had during the prayer and while Miguel was reciting scripture were not crazy, but were truths that God wanted to speak over them. The little girl I saw was God showing Rafael that there was hope for them to have kids and that they could have a girl.
At first, I felt guilty and upset that I had deprived those men of the truth God had wanted to speak over them, and I felt awful that I was not obedient enough to God to look past my insecurities to share what I had seen with them. I then talked to Brittany, another squad leader about it, and she told me that obedience is a practice. We don’t get it all at once and we don’t get it right every time, but that’s okay. That’s the wonderful thing about the Holy Spirit. God wants to use us and wants us to be obedient, but we don’t have to carry the fullness of his truth all the time. Sometimes we don’t say or do things, or sometimes we miss it all together, but we always have next time, and God can always use someone else if that truth still needs to be spoken over someone.
But isn’t it amazing how God used a seemingly pointless layover in Miami to teach us so much about His nature and about what loving His children looks like. Before today, I was so afraid of starting conversations with strangers. Not just conversations about God or the gospel, just conversations in general! However, watching John, Nick, and Michael be so willing to talk with people and love them made this thing that seemed so big and scary to me a lot less scary. All they did was start a conversation where they genuinely wanted to hear their stories, and the Holy Spirit worked from there.
As I study scripture more and watch how the Holy Spirit moves in moment like this, and how that parallels the age-old stories, it is so clear that God is speaking to us every day, and wanting us to show His love to others and be obedient to His perfect will, even if we don’t fully understand the plan. They way God spoke to Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, and so many more is not in the past. It’s happening now. God wants to talk to us, and need to not only be willing to listen, but also act. It may seem scary and strange, but if it is truly God’s will, He will protect us and guide us where we need to go. There were so many things we did that day that if they didn’t happen the way they did, we wouldn’t have gotten to share love with the people we did. While we were at Bayside, we all just felt like we needed to be still in that moment because God knew if we waited for the right moment, we would get to meet Miguel and Rafael along the way. If we wouldn’t have had that crazy long layover in Miami, we wouldn’t have been able to do any of what we did at all. God has an incredible plan, and we are so lucky to get to steward that plan. He has entrusted us with so much, and when in our free will, we choose to obey God, He will bless us and others a hundred times over for it.
