Have you ever had one of those moments in which God is sort of nudging you in the direction he wants you to go? You know like you can almost here God clearing his throat and and tilting his head in the direction of whatever that sign is? Every time the sign comes into your view you immediately look at it almost nervously because you know there is a reason that sign is there because its unique to you and that moment.
If you know what I am talking about then the story I am about to share with you will make sense. You will read this and understand what I am talking about when I say sign. If you don’t know then please don’t stop reading. Just enjoy the story of how God used on bracelet to start a great conversation.
Monday nights are date night for my wife and I and for the past couple of weeks our date nights have consisted of watching either the Chicago Cubs play Monday Night Baseball or watching WWE Monday Night Raw. Now before you think my wife and I are huge WWE fans, we simply watch because it provides us with a good laugh and the acting is just hilarious. Anyways, not what this is about. I realized one night that the baseball season is quickly coming to a close and that ever sense Alexis and I had returned from our summer ministry, we had yet to attend a baseball game. To keep this from getting to long, I picked the first Monday that the Fort Wayne Tin Caps where home and that was what we went with.
Alexis and I had received a gift card to Longhorn Steak House and so before the game we decided we would actually have a nice dinner out. Thanks to the hour drive from Winona Lake and the game starting at 7:05, we beat the dinner rush to the restaurant. My wife had gotten a phone call and so I waited not so patiently for her to finish her phone call and when she finally finished two people had walked in front of us. Now I know what you are thinking, that I need to calm down and not make this all about me. She had a phone call that maybe lasted 10 minutes. I know not that bad, but the thing is I was hungry and I really wanted my steak. My thought process at that moment was all selfish and self centered motives.
Now here’s where God takes my impatient situation and shows me that he had a plan all along. We get seated and a waitress comes to our table and takes our drink orders but a different waiter brings our drinks back and says that he is actually the one taking care of us. Immediately after smiling and thanking him for bringing our drinks, my eyes lock on the bracelet around his wrist.
Love was all the bracelet said and was made by Mud Love. Now for those of you reading who have no idea what Mud Love is they are a store that makes jewelry out of clay and have actually become quite popular. No coincidence that they are made right in Winona Lake. If you are thinking that I immediately strike up a conversation with our awesome waiter, well you would be wrong. I let him come back to our table twice before finally getting up the nerve to ask him about the bracelet.
Our conversation quickly went to me asking him if him and his girlfriend, who was the one who bought him the bracelet, went to church anywhere. When he told me no I was expecting him to quickly leave and I thought I would only see him once maybe twice more throughout our evening there, but God had other plans and he seemed very interested in knowing why I was asking. So I explained Mud Love and what they do and then even had the awesome opportunity to invite him to the church that my wife and I used to attend when we lived in Fort Wayne. From further conversation it was discovered that my wife and him actually knew each other, or had at least met once while my wife worked for ONE in Fort Wayne. Turns out that our waiter also sells medical supplies, no coincidence that he sells staples for hand surgeries. My wife worked with a hand surgeon while she worked at ONE and he even knew the doctor she worked for! We where able to then pray for him and his job of selling medical supplies, as it is not an easy job, and throughout the whole rest of the night he came back to our table more than he did the other tables he was waiting on.
The reason I am telling you this story is simple. I want to encourage you that God can use the simplest things in life to allow greater things to happen. What I mean by that is God used a simply bracelet that started a conversation that left one waiter at a Longhorn Steakhouse with hope and an invitation to church. I cannot tell you how much more encouraged our waiter appeared as he worked the rest of shift. He was already in what seemed to be a very good mood, but because someone took the time to care about him and hear about him, he was even more encouraged.
I was nervous when I started talking with him. I never know how conversations are going to go, but I knew that God had him wearing Mud Love for some purpose and I took it to start a conversation. I can’t help but think of how impatient I was before my wife and I where seated and how even more impatient I was when two people walked in in front of us and where seated before us. The people who went in before us, where seated in a different section that was not in the section that our waiter was in.
Yeah God worked last night, and I could tell he was working in our waiters heart. Never think that something is a coincidence. Things do happen for a reason and sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes we get to see why those things happen. God works things out for His glory, even if that thing is a phone call and someone being seated before you.
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