This morning our family and a friend **a lady whose grown children are in China and Texas, so she practices her grandma skills on our kids. ;0)** met up at Target to hang out, wander around for an hour, and pray with "random" people. oh. so. good.
Elise and I were walking together past the shoes when I saw a woman with a gorgeous smile on her face, laughing at shoes with what turned out to be her daughter and grandson. I stepped into the aisle and asked if I could bless the joy that was clearly already in her. She welcomed it! I'm always most nervous about the first person. I asked her name, and she said, "Cheryl." no way. :0) Elise asked how she spelled it, enjoying the fun of the moment. Her grandson with her was the same age as Elise. We were both loving the similarity happenstance of our names and the children. I invited God to bless her, what He's already put in her, that joy so clearly in her eyes... She was floored by what had just happened and continued to say, "This just doesn't happen anymore. We don't see people doing this. No one just comes up and blesses you." We parted ways, as we laughed at the fun of our brief time together.
We walked into the baby section. I saw a woman whose face I knew from somewhere and asked God to give me a word for her. TRUTH was the word that came to my mind. I walked toward her and asked how I knew her - turns out I snuggled her baby in the church nursery 2 weeks ago during the entire 11:15 service. so good. -- Cheryl from moments earlier came over to us and asked where we fellowshipped and what time services were. :0) I just love Cincinnati. She again shared how much that blessing meant to her and shared that her son was murdered February 3rd, 13 years ago. She said that she never works that day of the year. I asked her son's name and we got to listen to a bigger piece of her story. I love making space for people to share their stories!! I'm pretty sure it's a piece of what I was made for. -- We said farewell again to Cheryl, and the mom from the baby section had tears in her eyes. Turning to her, I shared that "truth" was the word I felt like God gave me for her. She welcomed prayer. I prayed. She wanted a hug. She walked away in tears, telling us how much she needed that.
Next, we met up with our friend who was with Andrew and the kids. She and I walked toward the food aisles and saw a man stocking shelves. He welcomed prayer, asking for prayer for everything, not able to pinpoint one thing. The word HOPE came up in my mind, so I asked if I could pray that over him. A picture came to my mind of a mustard seed (tiny) of hope growing into a mustard tree (huge) right there in the Target aisle where he was restocking. It was so cool! It was like we got to water that seed of hope. As we were praying, my friend asked God to increase his work... When we were finished praying he said that he was only going to be working for about a half hour more because they aren't able to give him many hours right now. Ha! Karen had just prayed for increase in work. It's so coming! :0)
We meandered back to the baby section, and it felt like we kept running into this one lady, so I asked if I could pray LOVE over her. She said she had just come from mass and would love prayer. :0) Her daughter was going to have a baby February 18th and has had complications with 2 other pregnancies. One baby had died, and another was fused to her uterine lining? ugh. Her priest that morning had told the story of Jesus in the boat during the storm, asleep, minutes later speaking peace into it. She clearly need to talk, and it was so good to give her space to share her story. We prayed for her, then she and I got to turn and pray for my friend Karen who is very much missing her own children and grandchildren. As this woman prayed, she had a sense that Karen was going to find new life in memories today. What in the world?! so good.
People, heaven came to Target today in some seriously tangible ways. And we got to be a stinking part of it!!
So many people have been hurt by religion, and my heart aches. - This life is about a relationship with the One who created us to love and be loved, who loves us, who gave up everything so we could love and be loved!
The kids and I went to the mall with friends Monday to pray for people, and one guy said he didn't want prayer because he wasn't religious. Another guy today told Andrew that he had the wrong guy. Man, are they missing out. I recall once that Jesus said he didn't come to heal people who thought they were already well but those who knew they were not well on their own -- those who knew their need for Him.
People who live in religion, not relationship; in judgment, not love; hurting, not healing; talking, not listening... my heart races, and I can feel my breath quicken when I think about religion, judgment, the wounds made, the deep marks the lack of relationship makes.
It's not about being perfect, it's about having permission to be. It's not about becoming something, it's about being who we are. It's not about trying to have love, joy, peace, patience...; it's about being with Jesus; walking with him, talking with him, listening to him, knowing peace and life and truth because of him. breathe.
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