I lead an online ministry called Kingdom Breathers. We’re mostly World Race Alumni, and we all want to see the Holy Spirit move in the States as much as we did on the Race. This was the encouragement I offered them this evening about what the Holy Spirit did through me last night.
I went out to dinner last night with a woman I get to disciple.
But here’s the Truth behind the Gram: I’m Daniel Fasting and I donated blood last week. Which means my stamina is way down. Plus I don’t have a desk job. I stand all day and diffuse human bombs. Then I was going out to dinner. With an introvert—which means sometimes this introvert has to work extra hard to make conversation.
I had the wrong time on my calendar and ended up showing up 30 minutes early. That was 30 perfect minutes to figure out how tired I was. Wow.
I was guzzling water trying to stay awake.
I figured the 30 minutes was the gift of time from Jesus, so I asked Him what He up to in this restaurant. I’m looking around and noticing people. Ask Him questions about them.
I didn’t feel like anything remarkable happened. I never left my chair, never talked to anyone. I didn’t even make eye contact with anyone.
My friend came, I had very little energy to make conversation with her, but she understood. Aren’t friends like that great? Then I came home and almost went to bed at 8:30… for the second time in four days.
Yup, throw the restaurant incident into the “Katie blew it” box that’s getting rather full.
In the morning, Jesus was encouraging me. Isn’t it lovely when He does that?
He brought up the restaurant incident by claiming I saw Him there.
I argued I didn’t cuz I didn’t see anything remarkable. He told me about all the people I noticed in that 30 minutes. I didn’t believe that was Him. It didn’t even feel super weird to me. I told Him what I expected Him to look like… you know, like a good Pharisee missing the long-awaited Messiah standing right in front of her.
He asked me a question that I’ve been chewing on all day:
“Why would I make you do something you hate?”
He’s right, I hate talking to strangers in public. Every ounce of awkward in my being decides that’s the right moment to come out and play.
I don’t like to talk to sales people; I don’t like to talk to cashiers. I definitely don’t like to talk to other shoppers who are just trying to cross “grocery shopping” off their to do list. Nope. No thanks.
Is God stretching or developing you?
My friend Courtney asked me that this week. At first I was confused. Wait, stretching and developing, aren’t those the same thing?
She said no. And she’s way smarter than me so I believe her when she says smart things.
Sometimes we use the words interchangeably but there’s a difference, she said.
Developing is taking something you’re already good at and practicing and growing to get better. Stretching is making you do something you hate or doesn’t come naturally to you for the sake of getting better.
Both have value and both have their place, but developing leads to better results. And a better attitude.
For me, playing basketball is stretching. I catch better with my nose than my hands.
Playing tennis is developing. I enjoy it; I’ve got some natural skill.
When it comes to the kingdom, I’m a terrible evangelist. I can’t show you to lead someone to Christ. I can’t even model it for you. But I can teach you to prayer walk. I can explain passages of scripture to you in ways you haven’t understood it before.
I need evangelists in my world to learn from and to stretch me. I need to do street evangelism with the kind of people who can see 600 people come to Christ in one afternoon.
But I also need teachers to help me develop how I teach and explain. We need each other. That’s why Paul calls us the Body of Christ. An arm’s no good without a brain. A heart is no good without lungs.
I was listening to a teaching from Jeff Powell this morning and he said, “Live life intentionally. The results aren’t up to you. All that’s up to you is to live intentionally.”
That’s what I did in the restaurant last night. I lived intentionally.
I intentionally scanned the restaurant looking for Jesus.
And I found Him. Or at least He tells me I did.
Where is He developing you? Will you share your story with me in the comments?
