Meant to be

It was the Sunday after Independence Day 2015. It was 5:15pm, and I was in the parking lot headed to my car after a challenging four hour work shift. For some reason, I decided to strike up a conversation with “Dave” who was loading the trunk of his car up with the groceries he’d just purchased from the store I’d just exited.

We both discussed the details of our jobs that involved lots of standing. While I was a greeter, he was a golf instructor. I looked with great longing at the wooden stool that lay in the trunk of his car, and wished we were allowed to use something like that.

t would take a lot of stress off my arthritic left knee. I told Dave the only reason I stayed in this job is because I felt this was where God wanted me.

I told Dave my great joy would be employment in the field of writing (if jobs were available). I mentioned the books I’d published, and the blog I currently kept. I then mentioned to Dave the forty day marriage challenge I was undertaking in The Love Dare, and examples of how it worked.

I hoped to improve me as a spouse and the quality of our marriage. I told Dave the effectiveness of this journal had been demonstrated in the movie Fireproof (starring Kirk Cameron). I told Dave I had noticed a difference in both Bobbi and me in the eight days I’d been participating in the process.

Dave told me he was currently separated from his wife, Annie, and was right now living in Worthington, OH. He wanted to reunite with Annie, but knew changes needed to happen.  He had intended on going to church that morning, but woke up late. He decided to tune in to Joel Olsteen instead.

Dave then told me something like, “I think God meant for you to stop and see me.” Before I left for my car, I once again recommended Fireproof for a working model of The Love Dare. I told Dave complete honesty in the journaling was important. I explained that maybe if Annie saw Dave making an honest change in his life who knew what could happen.

I gave Dave the address to my Encourage Me blog, which he recorded in his phone along with the other information I’d given him. I suggested he read the post Simply Unforgettable.

 I mentioned to him the fighting Chihuahuas in the first part of the love letter to Bobbi as an example of the vicious fighting I’d done in the past with my wife. Dave said he’d owned mixed-breed Chihuahuas, and knew of the kind of hostility these dogs can have in a moment of anger.

Sometimes you have no idea why you do what you do. It just seems right at the moment. As in the above story, you may not fully understand the healing you may have brought into someone’s life just with a simple conversation. Why not be an agent of change in a stranger’s life. Putting your heart out there may be exactly what someone is in desperate need of. Believe it or not, God may be whispering to you to stretch yourself in ways you could only imagine.