Full transparency, I often struggle with the thought of if God speaks to me. In my head, I know He does. I know He speaks in a variety of different ways to everyone. But oftentimes, I can’t tell the difference between my own personal thoughts and His thoughts. I get super in my head about it and I sometimes get discouraged about it.
Okay, there’s the honest moment. I now want to lead you into a story from the other day.
Tuesday morning, I woke up and the sun was shining into my room. I could feel the heat of the sun, I could hear the birds, it felt like summer honestly. I looked at the temperature for the day and it was going to be in the 60’s Fahrenheit (around 15-20 Celsius)! That’s practically a nice, late May, early summer day for my Hoosier self. My mind soon went to thoughts of the park that is a five-minute walk from our house. Then I started to picture my team and I sitting on a bench or two at the park and just worshipping. I journaled about it, just to come back to it later if need be.
Fast forward to that afternoon, we sit down at our dinner table to pray and see where the Lord was leading us that afternoon. We took some time to pray and my teammates shared what they had gotten from the Lord. I hesitated because I was unsure if I should share the image that had come to mind that morning. I made eye contact with one of my teammates, whom I had shared it with earlier, and they made a face that clearly told me that I should share it but still I hesitated. After people had shared, there was a moment of silence and I finally ask, “what if someone got something this morning, can we share that as well?” And of course, they all said yes, and wanted to know what I had gotten. So I shared about my morning and the imagery I had gotten. So we prayed about whether or not to go to the park and worship. Everyone on my team agreed that’s what we should do that afternoon.
So we headed out to the park. We brought our art supplies, Matt and Travis brought their instruments, and Clara brought a cup full of wildflowers she had picked from our yard. We set up near a fountain and we just started doing our thing. Matt and Travis started playing worship music, us girls pulled out our Bibles, journals, and sketchpads and began seeing where the Lord was leading us in that park.
Now let me try and give you an imagery of what was happening. I would say close your eyes and imagine this, but alas, then you couldn’t read it. So maybe read it and then try to picture it? Anyways, Elizabeth and I are sitting alongside the fountain/small pool that is there. It is elevated so we’re sitting on a short wall. We have pulled out our Bibles and sketchpads. Clara and Travis are sitting on a bench about 20 ft away. Clara has her sketchpad out, Travis is playing his guitar. To the right of them, Matt is on the cajon (box drum). And then to the left of them on the ground, Paula is there with her sketchpad. (As you can tell there’s a theme with us girls and our sketchpads.) As we are sitting there, worshipping, there are two things that happen. The first thing is that the Islamic Call to Prayer is coming from the Mosque right next to the park. It was just such a wild, surreal experience to hear both of those sounds at once. The second thing was that there was a group of guys in probably their mid-twenties sitting a couple of benches away from where we were. They finally come up and only one really speaks English and he sits with Paula and Clara and begins talking with them. One of the guys, who speaks no English, comes over and asks to look at Bible, which I gladly say yes to, even if he doesn’t understand it.
Elizabeth and I are still sitting across from our team while the guys are still worshipping and Paula and Clara are talking to this guy. I spend this time, doodling an image for Psalm 19:10 and then praying for the conversation that Paula and Clara were having with this guy. I heard pretty much nothing of their conversation except the words “forgiven” and “anxiety.” That was it. I had no idea what they were talking about. I had no idea what this man’s story was/is. But suddenly, 2 Corinthians 5:17 came to mind. The verse reads, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here!” And immediately, I felt like I needed to give this man that I know nothing about that verse. But I wanted a picture to go with it but I had no idea what to draw. I turned to Elizabeth and told her what was on my heart and that I didn’t have a drawing for it but it was going to have be okay. Elizabeth looks at me and then holds up a drawing she had just done and says, would this work? And she is showing me a picture of a tombstone with new flowers growing around it. We just looked at each other and laughed because that imagery was perfect for what this verse was talking about.
She quickly draws a couple more flowers on there, and then on the back, I write out the verse in Albanian (shoutout to the Bible app for having the Albanian Bible). I then walk over to him and I explain that I wanted to give this small piece of paper to him and I explain the verse and imagery to him. I tell him that the tombstone represents his old life and that the flowers around it represent the new life in Christ that we have. He is incredibly grateful and asks if I had heard what he had been sharing and Paula starts laughing and is like no, she has no idea what we talked about, she heard the voice of the Lord. Elizabeth came over and explained more about the drawing and then got to explain to him that we get to hear from the Lord and that He wants to talk to us. And that what we hear can then allow others to hear from Him as well.
It was a wild time, let me tell you that. But one thing I learned from that day was that God speaks to us. I’m not saying this single experience is gonna take away my doubts and struggles, but I know that it helped me grow in my confidence that God does speak to me. I just have to listen.
