On the second day of our month four debrief, my newly formed “mega team” and I were walking down a busy street in tourist driven Siem Reap, Cambodia, ready to make our first memory together. What began as 12 new teammates heading to lunch, quickly became a life altering God encounter with a stranger from the UK.
As we were trekking to the local pizza joint, chatting and carrying on, Marlin wrapped his arms around a teammate in mid stride. A complete stranger, a tall, well-mannered gentleman from the UK named Michael, inquired in a joking fashion, “Are you just giving out hugs then?”
In accordance with Marlin’s goofy, loving nature, he embraced the stranger with a huge bear hug, with Josey bringing up the rear. As the envelopment proceeded, I could see in the man’s eyes that he desperately needed the hug.
Michael then turned to Sherese, the recipient of Marlin’s initial hug, and expressed he needed a woman’s perspective on something. He began to spill about a heavy altercation with his girlfriend the previous night which ended in him hurling the engagement ring, which he hadn’t even presented yet, at her steaming head.
We chatted for a few minutes and, as the conversation came to a close, I felt the overwhelming urge to pray for him. He obliged, so we surrounded him and begged a blanket of peace and wisdom over him. When we finished praying, the previously tough exterior had melted away in the presence of the Holy Spirit. He thanked us through puffy red eyes and headed on his way.
As we sat down at our table, I turned around and saw Michael ordering a drink at the bar of the restaurant we attended. I called him by name and he responded quickly. Walking briskly towards me, he shook my hand and croaked, “Thank you so much. The kindness of a stranger is hard to come by these days. I would like to buy you guys some pizza.” I looked down at my hand and there was $200 cash staring back at me.
I hugged him and invited him to join us at our table for lunch. Michael was convinced he would soil the righteousness of our table, but after some convincing that we were normal people just like him, he finally joined us.
As we chatted, he began to spill about his life. He makes great money, has the baller house, a fast car, and a model girlfriend, yet he is the most unhappy he has ever been in his life, therefore, he is drowning his sorrows in Cambodia on his month off of work.
As he continued, we quickly realized this moment was orchestrated by the Holy Spirit. The previous night, Michael purchased a Glock 17 from a shooting range and had the tuk tuk driver drop him off in a field, there he meditated on ending his life. He explained, after about 30 minutes, he fired the 9mm into the ground and buried the gun. Running back into town, stricken with grief he continued drowning his shame in a bottle of Grey Goose.
We literally ran into him a few hours after he tried to take his own life.
The conversation continued and Marlin, who had been quiet the whole time, expressed the Lord’s heart to Michael. “Listening to you talk, I just keep hearing one word over and over again and that’s, ‘worthy.’ You are worthy to receive love.” At Marlin’s declaration of truth, Michael began to tear up again. We proceeded to speak truth over him and he stated his own truth to us. “You all have literally saved my life today. Thank you so much.”
As time to meet our tuk tuk driver ominously encroached, we wrapped up our conversation and said goodbye to our new friend. He said he wasn’t ready to receive Christ that day however, I am fully confident the Father is pursuing Michael with a fiercely unmatched by any words I could type in this blog.
My first call to action for you, my reader and friend, is to pray that Michael embraces the Father’s heart for him. That he would realize this encounter was not just a fluke in space and time, but a finely orchestrated encounter, planned by his heavenly Father since before he formed Michael in his mother’s womb.
My prayer after this experience is that we embrace interruptions like this and share the love that has already been lavished on us.
We see Jesus embody this characteristic so many times in scripture. The woman with the issue of blood, for example, Jesus was on his way to raise a little girl from the dead, pretty big deal, yet he still had time to heal this woman who touched the hem of his robe. He never passed someone by just because he was hungry and on his way to lunch. Heck it took him over three days to get to Lazarus, but look at the miracle that took place when he finally showed up.
Lastly, I want to make this point. This whole thing didn’t happen because of us showing love to strangers. It came from us showing love to each other. A stranger saw love being poured out and said, “I need some of that!” In John 13 Jesus expresses, “All people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
How many opportunities do you think we miss every day because of a simple lack of love for one another?
It’s time for the church to step out in boldness and be compassion to a hurting world. Divine encounters like these could happen every day. However, it is up to us to first recognize them, then follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit to steward them well. You never know when you could change someone’s day, life, or even better, their eternity.
God’s presence is already with us, but it’s up to us to be in tune with the Spirit so we can make the most of every opportunity.
So, my question to you is, are we loving our brothers and sisters well? Is it evident to the people around us that we are different? If not, we may need to check Jesus’ criteria for being a disciple.
