Punching Fear: Senior Citizen Edition.

Ok, so my last post was about the Start Experiment and punching fear.  That was July.  Thousands of people were part of this cool experiment and wrote books and songs and ran for congress and started cupcake companies.  Me, not so much.  But I have thrown a few punches here and there.  Some of them even involved senior citizens.  Read on, my friends... 

Do you ever have silly little internal arguments inside your head ?  You know, like when a thought pops into your brain that you think might be God…  but you’re not sure if you’re just making it up because, frankly, you’re a bit of a drama queen?  So you sit there, arguing with yourself, whether to act on the thought and risk all kinds of awkward humiliation, or just go for it, and leave the results up to God? 

Well, that was me,  sitting at a table in the Marketplace Café at Wegmans, after I noticed a senior citizen gentleman sitting by himself, cradling an empty cup of coffee, staring off into space.  “What if he’s hard of hearing and you end up having to scream for Jesus in the middle of people trying to enjoy their lattes and sushi?”  “What if he just wants to be left alone?”  “What if he thinks you’re an idiot?” All valid concerns in my brain.  And yet…  in the end, the voice that won out was the one that simply said “why don’t you just ask him if he’d like a refill on his coffee?”  So I swallowed hard, walked over to him, and that’s what I did.  I mean, what was he going to do, beat me up?  I could outrun him if I had to, right? 

Turns out, he didn’t beat me up, or get angry, nor was he hard of hearing.  Instead, he was very appreciative of the offer.  Our conversation was not long, but I did have the opportunity to tell this sweet man that God loved him very much, and just wanted to show him that in a small way. 

Now don’t get me wrong.   This is soooo not about what “I” did.  Big deal.  I bought a man a cup of coffee. It’s not about the coffee.   It was about the glisten in his eyes at the mention of the words “God loves you”.  He was glistening.  And, I believe, he was listening.  Not to me, but to the voice of God, speaking personally to him, in the middle of Wegmans on a weekday afternoon.   All because I listened to the voice of God.   

Sometimes we worry that we can’t tell the difference between His voice and ours.  But I am finding that my voice DOES sound a lot like His… when that voice is telling me something that goes along with His character.  It’s not about the results, it’s about the response.  I am so glad I responded, and left the results to the Lord.  He’s good with results.