It was a warm Montana day in late August. I finished up a meeting with a few guys I was discipling and felt the Lord’s sudden, unexpected, but clear leading to walk over to Walmart. I didn’t have anything pressing on my schedule and Walmart was just a short walk away so off I went!
I walked around inside the store for a bit and then grabbed some lunch. After eating, I headed out the door and almost forgot why I had came there. No one had really been “highlighted” to me and I can’t say I was really “feeling it” to talk to anyone.
Yet at that point when I exited, I paused. I knew there had to be more. God had more to say. When Philip was directed by God to the desert road in Acts 8, He was also guided by the Holy Spirit to “Go to that chariot and stay near it” at the leading Lord (vs 29, NIV). “Why did you suddenly direct me here today Lord?” I asked. I had the sense from the Holy Spirit to “look around” and so I walked around there in front of the store. It wasn’t 15 seconds later when I noticed a man probably around my age sitting near the building.
I can’t say his body language invited me to talk to him—but I noticed he had a cast on his arm and I felt the Lord’s invitation to engage with him. If he didn’t want to talk to me, I’d let him make that choice, I thought, but I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to step out!
I asked him how he was doing and he shook his head and mumbled an answer. He shared about some struggles he was having in life and how his injury prevented him from working. I don’t always do this, but I did tell him I was a chaplain and I asked if I could pray for his arm. He was fine with that, and after I finished a prayer for healing it led to a very interesting conversation!
He began to share his own spiritual journey a bit, growing up Catholic and how he was currently agnostic. He shared how he thought heaven and hell were things we create for ourselves. I’ve learned to not correct people too quickly when they share but let them process what they believe with me and remain calm and interested. Often, I don’t think people ever really verbalize out loud what they really believe until given an opportunity!
As the conversation continued, I shared some of my own journey with him and how I met the Lord amidst struggles with alcohol in college, recognizing I could never do enough good things to be saved. Then I shared about the issue of righteousness—how we need to be righteous through Jesus. God does reward us for works in this life, but without becoming clothed in Christ’s righteousness, our works will are not enough and we will be eternally separated from God in hell. He listened intently.
I went on to talk about growing in relationship with God and learning to hear from Him. I even shared with him why I had come over here to Walmart, as God had directed me. I shared a testimony of God giving me a word of knowledge for healing for someone where it was revealed what their health issue was and how they improved after prayer. The man was really intrigued then, and began processing more from his own life.
He shared how someone in his life had said they heard things from God and had treated him poorly. He confronted them on it, and said that what they were doing wasn’t godly. Sadly, his choice to confront had consequences that really affected his life and caused hurt.
I empathized with him in this pain and told him I thought he had done the right thing and that not everything people say is God really is! We are all human and can get it wrong and we need to be discerning.
He went on to tell me how he had explored some other churches in our region and how different that they were from his upbringing. We talked a bit more about churches and the joys and struggles that can be had there because people are still learning to walk as God intends. I really emphasized that dynamic relationship with God is what it’s about, and how God changes us from the inside out. He doesn’t expect us to come to him perfected. He said he really liked that!
Our conversation ended rather abruptly, and I think someone he was waiting for came or called or something—I can’t remember exactly as I write this. What I do know is that God had a purpose in my short detour to Walmart that day. A man needed help processing his spiritual journey and he needed to hear a clear presentation of the gospel and some stories of what it looked like to walk with God.
I am honored God chose to involve me in this man’s spiritual journey. I trust God will bring more people to this man to water the seeds I was able to sow so that he can grow into a passionate, spirit-led disciple of Jesus! Praise the Lord for yet another opportunity to co-labor with Him in His harvest fields! It pays to go with Him and trust He’ll give more at the right time!
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