I really should go to sleep, but I feel compelled to share a great story that Matt had told us at lunch about something that happened to him a short time ago. I’m bound to get some details wrong… so Matt, if you read this feel free to correct it.

He’d received a phone call while he was in Indiana that a colleague and brother in Christ had committed suicide. As you could imagine, this put him in a state where he needed to spend some time processing this. He was in a coffee shop listening to his iPod and considering what might bring a brother to a place where this was the only answer left in his mind?

As he considered this, a lady sat down next to him and he began to wonder about encouragement. He felt prompted to do something unusual. With his headphones still in his ear, he took a slip of paper and wrote on it, “Who has encouraged you lately?” and slid it over to the lady who had sat next to him. As he continued to listen to his iPod, she wrote something and slid it back to him. When he looked, he saw that she had written, “My brother is usually good at that.”

This got Matt thinking about his sister and he decided to send her a text message that said, simply, something to the effect of “I just want you to know that I love you today.” She responds back, “I always know that… so what do you need?” At which point he smiles, take out one earbud, slides his phone over to the lady and says, “That’s my sister.”

He wonders some more about encouragement and if something as simple as “Keep on going” would have been enough to encourage his colleague. With this in mind, he takes the previous slip of paper and writes something to the effect of, “Keep on going, it’s worth it” and slides it over to the lady. She gets up shortly after this and then he feels a tap on his shoulder and she mouths the words, “Thank You” to him.

All of us at the table found this striking because this simple exchange takes seemingly Herculean effort for most of us. Being led of the Spirit is difficult because it takes a few things:

  1. We must believe that He will actually lead us
  2. We must be open to being led
  3. We must be willing to do that which He’s leading us to do
  4. We must actually do that thing He’s leading us to do

For me, it takes such great effort because I forget – I forget that He can and does lead us. I neglect the fact that I need to be aware of my surroundings and come to a place where I realize I might be called upon to interact with someone near me. That takes a huge paradigm shift as well as a true desire to listen to the people around me and, most importantly, a willingness to hear the Holy Spirit and maybe even ask if there’s something I should do or say to interact with someone.

Lord Jesus, please help me to be aware of Your Spirit in every situation I find myself in. Help me to not be afraid of what You’ll ask me to do, but to be thankful that You even ask.