Warning! Extremely Long Blog Follows!

I am sorry it has been so long. As I add more and more to my life (in this case a job), it gets harder and harder to sit down and post something. But here I am on a Sunday evening with some time to spare so I’m taking this time to inform you of what’s been going on down here in the Valley of the Sun.

About a month ago, I had an inconsequential conversation with a guy from work. He worked back in the plant but he had to take care of some paperwork in the office. So, I was helping send a fax and we were talking, and in the course of things he found out I live in Peoria, and it turns out he lives there too. Meanwhile, I faxed his paperwork three times because I wasn’t sure if it went through or not. So, that is about how significant the conversation was. Then about two weeks ago I ran into him again in the lunchroom on my lunch break. He works the first shift from 5 am to 1 pm, so he was just getting off work when I was eating lunch. We had another insignificant conversation about the flavor of yogurt I was eating, and whether or not I’d gone to any of the nightspots in Peoria. When he found out I hadn’t he made the comment that I didn’t get out much. To which I replied, “I do get out, just not to Wet Willy’s!” And with as much indignation as I could muster. Because I’m tired of being conceived as the naïve, innocent, good girl who is overly protected by her family, which I am well aware I am in danger of being, but I just don’t like being judged for it. So, after he saw that little flash he asked what I did do to get out. I told him that I had taken up ballroom dancing knowing full well that this would only perpetuate the stereotype of the good-girl/princess. But by now he was past teasing me for my lack of social life, and was floored by the ballroom dancing admission. But all in all, an insignificant conversation. About an hour after lunch, I’m back in the reception office with my headset on and the phone rings, and for some strange reason I answer it wrong and say, “Good Morning, ~insert company name here~”, but it was well into the afternoon. I was so busy chuckling to myself about this slip I hardly noticed the person at the other end of the phone. But it was the guy.

A not so insignificant conversation ensued about how he liked talking to me because he could tell I was different, and would I be comfortable talking outside of work? After several moments of hemming and hawing, and helping an actual person with their application, I managed to say that he could call me if he wanted and gave him my number. The next day he called and invited me to a baseball game because he had the day off owing to Good Friday, not knowing us office people had to go into work. So, I called him back over my lunch hour, and after some good conversation in which I started my testimony, but couldn’t finish it because of the fact I was driving to Subway and I was on my cell phone, he asked to see me that night. So, right then and there I asked him what he wanted out of this because I don’t date casually, and I didn’t want him to get his hopes up. He explained that he was hoping for potential at the very least and was tired of dating casually. So, I agreed to meet him with the intention of finishing my testimony.

We met at Applebee’s (a nice public place), and right after we were seated, he asked me to finish telling my testimony. So, I started by asking him what he thought about God. He told me he believed in God, and grew up going to church, and wanted to raise a family going to church, but he hadn’t been doing much in that direction for a while. So, I told him my testimony about God. How I was a good girl in high school, with lists of rules for myself to adhere to so I could gain heaven. How I thought I had everything I needed with family, friends and swimming. How all that was altered my freshman year of college, when all I had that kept me full, and blinded to the truth of my emptiness was stripped from me, and I was so alone I could finally hear the quiet voice of God calling to me. And how I finally answered that call. And so, I was finally able to explain to him that the reason I didn’t date causally is because of what the Lord calls me to in my life. That when I am with someone it is for the purpose of glorifying God, and emulating Christ and His church. To all this he said that I was an answer to prayer and that he had ceased to believe that people like me existed.

He started telling me about his life, and through his story I could see all the wounds he had collected, and how a life of partying was what he was doing to cope. But, he said that he wanted what I have. To be living for the Lord.

Since this conversation, I have learned that he was highly churched. I mean to the point of knowing all of the Christian lingo, but he never had any sort of accountability, and so he continued to live life out of his wounds. Well, this past Wednesday I met with him at Barnes and Noble, and talked with him about entering into new life. He had tons of questions about what that would look like, and I could only answer a few because you never know what God will do in your life. Anyway, by the end of the night I prayed with him, and he either recommitted his life to Christ or committed his life to Christ for the first time. Praise the Lord! He has started reading his Bible and is in the gospel of John. He went to church this Sunday, and wants to get involved in one of their men’s groups. Praise the Lord!

If you have made it this far, then I’m going to ask you to pray that he would continue to grow in the Lord and really set down roots. Pray that he would meet really godly men that will run alongside him, and can bring him closer to the Lord so that he can deal with his wounds and his past in light of what the Lord has to say about them.

All through this extremely exciting situation I have been able to simply be a vessel of God’s love to this man who didn’t believe God could love him or change him. It has been a great miracle to witness! Praise the Lord!