Familiar tunes of Jason Mraz flooded the Irish pastry shop as Bethany and I sat sipping caffe lattes. A man sat nearby reading a newspaper, cautiously sipping his cup of joe; a woman and her daughter laughed the next table over. Recognizable language and familiarity of the scene made me question whether I had left America. Ireland isn’t what I pictured it. It’s beautiful, but I didn’t have the “World Racer” feeling.
Our first week in Ireland has been spent in ‘training.’ I assumed after training camp in May I was fully prepared for what lie ahead. This week God offered me a glimpse of some crazy ways He is going to challenge and grow my faith.
It started with some ATL in the ATL back in the states. World Racers recognize it to mean ‘Ask The Lord’ before thinking of the coke capital of the world. Having a small taste of this earlier, I thought some people had fallen off their rocker. It sounds crazy. Basically the gist of this exercise is learning to listen to the Lord and asking him to provide signs to lead us to pray for people, situations etc.
There I was, outside the Green Isle Hotel in Clondalkin, a cute little town half an hour outside of Dublin, sitting on the sidewalk asking God for a sign. We regrouped to talk about what we had been given. My teammate Birkleigh had a picture in her head of a man in a jean jacket, white shirt, and brown hat. Tres saw a mother with a baby carriage.
You can imagine my predicament when I brought cheetah print to the table. Weird? Yes. Am I losing my mind? I shared this ‘revelation’ thinking it absurd. The last encounter I had with cheetah print was the dress I wore to a jungle themed Bat Mitzvah in 7th grade. Can’t say I’ve seen much cheetah since then.
We set off to town. Five minutes later Bethany points out the girl in front of me has a cheetah print bow. Crap. I don’t want to go talk to her. I chalk it up to Irish women loving their hair accessories. I ignore it and we keep moving.
A woman at the bus stop had a cheetah print bag, naturally. Too afraid to approach her, my teammate Heather boldly did the talking as I simply stood there. Her name was Michelle. We asked if there was something we could pray for her about as we felt God had led us to speak to her. Her eyes said it all; we were weird. She said nothing specific, but we said a quick prayer over her and left.
A woman in a cheetah print velour track jacket comes trotting down the street. She doesn’t speak English though.
Then I saw it, the undeniable truth; a large cheetah print van parked in a small parking lot across the street. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from it. God was telling me something; in a language I could understand, through an obnoxious cheetah print van.
Mark 10:47-52 – And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” And they called the blind man; saying to him, “Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.” And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. And Jesus said to him. “What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said to him, “Rabbie, let me recover my sight.” And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.
Mark 11:24 – Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
What does it mean to ask things from the Lord? Can we really just ask for signs like this? It seems extreme; too good to be true. I’m seeing how little of this I’ve had in my life. For years my prayers were filled with pleads for God to reveal himself to me somehow. I’ve never been specific. Jesus knows the blind man wants to see. He still asks him though. I am learning I can ask for spiritual gifts; ask to see the power of God at work. But if I don’t ask it won’t come.
That cheetah van stirred something inside me. Feeling God revealed to me in a new way was invigorating. Chalk it up to pure coincidence if you want. But I can’t deny God isn’t alive and very much at work in this world.
After the van, the rest of my day brought about more cheetah print. While none of these encounters may have been a huge production, it blessed people, encouraged, and planted a seed. One of the last encounters led us to a woman selling cheetah print purses, a believer, who mentioned she felt far from God lately but knowing God sent us to her helped to restore her faith. God loves his children. If that’s all cheetah print was about, showing me his presence, showing that woman He cares. Then it was worth it.
