What if…….
So many thoughts come after those few words.
What if I had a new car? What if I was more attractive? What
if I was dating that guy? What if I had that life?
Here are some new questions though. What if your leg was
blown off by a land mine? What if your wife left you because of this? What if
you had to beg on a street corner for money? What if you got arrested 6 times
over the last 5 years because you were illegally in a country?
These are questions that you will never have to ask
yourselves but one man I met in Chiang Mai has faced each of those what if
questions and is overcoming them with the hope found in Jesus Christ.
The following is the story of how I met Daniel*.
Daniel sits in a dark corner on the sidewalk on the way to
the bar district. I passed him one evening while walking to one of the bars I
was ministering in. I looked Daniel in the eyes as I passed him and saw a huge
smile and a passion for life that you would not expect from a beggar on the
street. I continued on though. In bed that night I could not get the picture of
this man out of my head. I was thinking back to the sermon at church that past
Sunday which discussed supernatural healings and wondered if God had something
planned. The next night I walked past him again and looked him in the eyes but
kept walking. There was something about this man that was drawing me to him. Steph
was with me and I told her I thought we were supposed to do something with
Daniel. She agreed and thought we were supposed to buy him dinner. We continued on to the bar with the
plan of buying him dinner after talking with our friend in one of the bars. We
went back to Daniel’s corner but he was not around.
The next night Steph and I decided our entire mission that
night was to buy this man dinner and pray for him. We thought the chances of
him speaking English were slim to none. We turned the corner and Daniel was
nowhere to be found. I was devastated at this point. God had put Daniel on my
heart for 2 nights and now he was not there. I was mad at myself because I felt
like God was telling me that when He gives me something to do I need to do it
then because you never know if you will get the chance again.
The next night Steph and I went out again. I walked around
the corner and saw Daniel. I was elated. We purchased dinner and took it over
to him.
What if I had not responded to God’s nudging to do something
with Daniel? What if I had been too self-conscious to sit down on the sidewalk
and talk to Daniel? What if I had simply walked on past?
If I had done any of those things I would not have been
blessed beyond belief to hear the story of Daniel. To be continued…
*Not his real name, made up for security purposes.
