God is so cool. I want to tell y’all about a day in Antigua, Guatemala and a valuable lesson He taught me that day.
Our squad was back in Antigua for a mini debrief at the end of month two. One day we were instructed to spend the afternoon in our teams doing ATL (Ask The Lord). We spend time in prayer asking God to speak to us, to show us visions, give us words, show us faces, etc. to guide us. We were instructed to write it all down, discuss with our teams and then go do ministry wherever He leads.
As I was praying, a few specific verses, images and words were dropped in my spirit, but one “random” word just kept coming up…pineapple…and I thought “surely that’s just me. what kind of instruction from The Lord is that?”
But I wrote it down anyway and shared it with my team.
Later that day we were in Central Park (yes Antigua has one too) and Margaret started chatting with a homeless man. I went over to join them and instantly I loved him. He was easy to talk to. Quite a character. Shining eyes and a big, easy smile. American… Ahhhhhhh so nice to speak the same language.
He asked if anyone knew any 60’s/70’s rock music and I knew we would be fast friends. You see, on my team, the running joke is about how I am an old woman. So even though I knew no one else would have a clue what we were singing I sat with Michael and sang a little of it all for two hours. Allman Brothers, CCR, James Taylor, Van Morrison, the Carpenters, Rolling Stones, Lynrd Skynrd, and too many more to name.
We laughed and we sang. Strangers passed, throwing confused glances our way. I smiled back at them because I know it might not make sense in their “world” for this clean, well-dressed (sort of) American woman to be sitting down with a bum in Guatemala. But I sat anyway and the hours passed quickly while Michael told me story after story. He told me about his family and all the pranks he pulled on his brothers as a child. He told me about his moms cooking (his favorite cake) and the time he spent traveling through the south (during which we transitioned to singing classic country… Conway Twitty, Tanya Tucker anyone?). He told me about living on the street in Guatemala and how he has collected useful items from the garbage. He told me about fishing in Japan and sleeping in parks of Central America.
He talked and he talked. And I sat and listened to every word with a nod of encouragement, occasionally a story of my own. But I kept waiting for the moment to tell him about Jesus. You know that aha moment when he says “yes that’s what I’ve been searching for my whole life.”
But as I sat there and said less and less, I began to truly see the person in front of me more and more. And the more I saw him, the more I saw Jesus.
Because I sat there and I lost track of time. I thought less about converting and I gained an urgency to love. I saw the person sitting in front of me. I really saw him. I saw, in small part, the Michael God sees. I didn’t see his dirty clothes or his holey shoes. I looked him in the eyes and I saw the beautiful heart and soul he harbored under all those tall tales and grand stories. I saw him less as a mission and more as a person. I saw him as a brother… as someone God loves so much.
So I forgot about how to walk someone through the plan of salvation and all the neat little bullet point ways we have concocted to lead someone to Jesus. I threw them all out the window and I surrendered to my simple instructions from the Lord “love your neighbor as yourself.”
Because the most important thing I have learned and continue to learn, is how to love. And I have learned that because of a God who loves me so much. A God who is relational. Jesus, who died for me, so that I would be able to be one with my Father. That is who Jesus is. He is relationship. He is looking in someone’s eyes and seeing their heart. He is stopping to talk to the one who is otherwise invisible or outcast. And He stops, not so that he can check something off His great list, but because He is love. Because He loves them, He stops for them. Because His heart won’t let Him do otherwise. He simply can’t pass them by. And because His love, that beautiful, all-consuming love has taken over my life and has trasnformed me from the inside out, I stopped and I saw and I loved.
And even though I set out with the intention of blessing him, I was blessed. Michael made an imprint on my heart that no length of time will ever fade. This man, who had two plastic bags containing all his worldly possessions, starting dreaming with me of ways we could cook a huge feast to invite all the homesless folks of Antigua to. He started asking how we could raise money to buy socks and warm clothes for the people living on the streets. Never once asking for food or clothes for himself. I showed him the shoes I was wearing had holes in the soles from dancing and he tried to give me his shoes, which he had just found that morning even though his other ones were literally in pieces.
Sometimes as Christians we get so fixated on the Great Commission that we forget the Great Commandment. We put the second above the first. But the first and most important command we have is to love. Love. Love God. Love your neighbor. That’s it. The Bible says “All the law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:40)
During all the time I had been sitting with Michael, other members of my team came and went, speaking to and praying with other people in the park. As it was now time to go, they all gathered once again around Michael. Margaret and I asked him to take a photo with us. He agreed and in order to get photo-ready he put his hair in a crazy ponytail. Then, without me even realizing it, he launched in to a five minute conversation about pineapples, because with his hair in a ponytail he said he looked like a perfect “pineapple head.” I smiled and listened, completely unaware until Deborah got my attention (which took a minute because I was listening pretty intently to Michael thinking she was rude for interrupting, which we laugh about now) and said “STACIE!!! PINEAPPLE”. And that’s when I remembered that word that kept popping up in my prayer time. PINEAPPLE. And then Michael saying.. “When I wear my hear like this I am a perfect pineapple head.”
And all I can do is laugh. Because God is so big. God is so amazing. And He loves us so much. He will do whatever it takes to let us know we are loved. Even if that means invading my “holy” time with visions of pineapples because there is a man in the park who needs a listening ear and friend to talk to.
We said goodbye to Michael and with the sincerest words, he told me that I would never know what a blessing I was. That he has wanted so badly to just have someone to talk to. That it did wonders for his soul to just be able to have a conversation with someone. It’s so easy to be busy. To be so consumed with our own lives and our own needs, wants, desires that we miss all the other people around us, desparate for something so simple: someone to talk to.
So thank you God for slowing me down. For giving me your eyes to see the need in this world. And thank you for two precious hours in Antigua singing and laughing with Michael. It did wonders for his soul. But it also did wonders for my soul.
I will never forget that crazy, grinning, pineapple head.
