This past week has been one of the most unique ones of my life, to say the least. It has been “gender week” where the men and women get the chance to separate and do things unique for our genders. So for the men, our week started out with a sort of fitness hike. Basically, we had to do 9 laps on this trail – each lap we had to carry one person and blindfold one person, and then the whole lap had to be crab-walked as well. If you have never crab-walked as an exercise, you really are missing out. So that took us two days and it was pretty tough, but it brought our team of men closer together and our view of dependence on the Lord definitely changed.
The second half of our week we (the men) got the chance to go up to the Appalachian Trail and hike and stay a couple nights on the trail. While we were there we had 24 hours of silence and solitude. Basically just 24 hours of just sitting with the Father and talking with him. It was pretty awesome but also pretty challenging seeing how I’m a very external, outgoing, community-driven guy, but alone time with God is always good and needed.
Anyway, while I was hiking along the trail I sat down on this rock for a while and was just asking the Lord about a lot of things and thanking him for his creation all around me. As I was sitting there, this girl came walking down the path; as she passed me, she didn’t really look up at all and just kept on going. It was honestly a pretty awkward encounter, and I was thinking to myself after she passed that I should have said hello or something. But then continued to tell myself it was fine and what would have come from saying hello anyway? Immediately, God whispered two things to me: first he said, “Didn’t you just ask me and tell me that you wanted to be used and tell everyone about my goodness?” And second, I felt him saying that the girls name was Alissa.
Well of course, I was immediately convicted by the Holy Spirit and felt like I was supposed to go ask this girl if that was her name. And you know what I did, I sat on my butt, and wrestled with the Lord cause I didn’t want to be some weirdo asking some random girl if her name was Alissa and saying that God told me that. Then the Lord reminded me of something I was once told, “Are you willing to look like a fool if it means telling them about the gospel and the goodness of Jesus Christ and the Father?” And man did that reminder convict me even deeper. So I got up and headed down the trail to try and find her, but she must have been running or something ’cause she was long gone. (However, if you saw some scruffy-looking dude like me alone on the Appalachian Trail right after sunset, you might have been running too.)
Anyway, that’s a little story from this week and my point is: Are you willing to look like a fool for Jesus? I probably missed out on a really awesome God moment. So when the Father speaks and prompts you to do something that may seem crazy and make you possibly look like a fool or weirdo, just know that it’s not up to us to do anything except be obedient and plant the seeds with the chances we are given. God will do the growing in His time. (1 Corinthians 3:7)
- Nathan
