On New Year's Eve, I sat at my friend's house listening to him play the guitar as his wife sang along. I didn't have any words.
I was tired, weary, and just felt like I had nothing to contribute.
So, after awhile at about midnight, he asked me, "Do you want to go on a treasure hunt?"
After asking him what exactly he was talking about, I said yes.
The instructions were: Ask God to reveal something to you. Then, go out and find it.
Simple enough, right?
So, we sat there in silence. The things that came to my mind were: a woman with a child standing on a doorstep, the name Stephanie, and the word pink.
After sitting in silence, he wrote all of our things down on an index card. Added to mine were a lime green, bubbly jacket, the name of a local sports bar, and a dead horse. Simple enough, right?
We got into the car and drove off, not knowing what to expect, but expecting something.
Pulling up to the parking lot of the bar (which happened to be where I took my last drink five years ago), we smoked a cigarette and pondered what in the world we were doing. As we thought, and strategized, and procrastinated, we finally told each other that this wasn't gonna work if we thought about it any longer.
So, we got out and headed in. There was a $10 cover charge. We thought to ourselves, "Surely God wouldn't want us to pay $20 to do this." But, we decided that if we trusted, we'd have to pay the money.
As soon as we entered, I saw that the bouncer was my old neighbor. The last time I'd seen him was the last time I'd been at this bar - drunk. As I walked up to him I said hi, and bent down to give him a hug in his wheelchair. I told him I hadn't had a drink in five years, and that I was coming to see if anything had changed.
I thought we would stick out like sore thumbs as everyone drank their beer and sang their songs, but nobody really noticed us. So, we grabbed a bar stool and took a seat, surveying the crowd, looking for Stephanie, pink, a lime green bubbly jacket, and a dead horse.
Right off the bat, we saw a girl in a pink hoodie. "Is that Stephanie?" we asked each other. "There's only one way to find out," I said.
So, my friend walked up to her table and asked her if her name was Stephanie. She abruptly said no.
So, we ordered Cokes and waited longer to see what or who would show up. There were clues everywhere. A lime green coozie, a horseshoe on the arcade golf game, a lady in a pinkish jacket.
But, nothing stood out as the thing.
After about an hour of sitting and watching and waiting, we decided that what we were looking for wasn't at this bar. So, we went to another bar.
We grabbed a bar stool, sat down, and surveyed the crowd. We listened to drunk karoake (and this was the last bar I got kicked out of). We spotted a girl wearing pink. The problem was, we couldn't find a window of time between her makeout sessions with her girlfriend to ask her if her name was Stephanie.
So, we waited, and watched, and listened.
My friend ran into an acquaintance that he knew, and they talked for a little bit.
After awhile, we decided that it was time to go. We didn't find what we were looking for, but found something else.
We were expectant. If there's anything I learned from this outing, it was that it's much better to be expectant than to not be.
At the first bar, the thing I was expecting didn't happen, but I got to hug my handicapped friend. Maybe he was who I was supposed to see. Maybe all the clues were supposed to just get me started so I would end up walking into that bar, on that night, to see that friend.
Maybe at the second bar, the clues were supposed to help us just get on our way, and to intersect my friend with his old acquaintance. Maybe those two people were who we were supposed to meet. Maybe we were supposed to do more. Maybe we were supposed to pray for them. Maybe we were supposed to encourage them.
Who knows?
It's way more fun to expect God to make something happen than to not.
When we're expecting something powerful, divine, weird, life-giving, and mind-blowing to happen in the monotony of life, our senses are heightened and we're looking for where God is moving. We're moving along lines that aren't our own. It sounds really absurd. We both felt that we were a little crazy, but in the end we had this feeling that we were doing something right. We were trying our best to follow this God we couldn't see, couldn't hear, and couldn't touch.
We were trying to unlock a mystery. We were going to any length to have a spiritual experience.
I was tired, weary, and just felt like I had nothing to contribute.
So, after awhile at about midnight, he asked me, "Do you want to go on a treasure hunt?"
After asking him what exactly he was talking about, I said yes.
The instructions were: Ask God to reveal something to you. Then, go out and find it.
Simple enough, right?
So, we sat there in silence. The things that came to my mind were: a woman with a child standing on a doorstep, the name Stephanie, and the word pink.
After sitting in silence, he wrote all of our things down on an index card. Added to mine were a lime green, bubbly jacket, the name of a local sports bar, and a dead horse. Simple enough, right?
We got into the car and drove off, not knowing what to expect, but expecting something.
Pulling up to the parking lot of the bar (which happened to be where I took my last drink five years ago), we smoked a cigarette and pondered what in the world we were doing. As we thought, and strategized, and procrastinated, we finally told each other that this wasn't gonna work if we thought about it any longer.
So, we got out and headed in. There was a $10 cover charge. We thought to ourselves, "Surely God wouldn't want us to pay $20 to do this." But, we decided that if we trusted, we'd have to pay the money.
As soon as we entered, I saw that the bouncer was my old neighbor. The last time I'd seen him was the last time I'd been at this bar - drunk. As I walked up to him I said hi, and bent down to give him a hug in his wheelchair. I told him I hadn't had a drink in five years, and that I was coming to see if anything had changed.
I thought we would stick out like sore thumbs as everyone drank their beer and sang their songs, but nobody really noticed us. So, we grabbed a bar stool and took a seat, surveying the crowd, looking for Stephanie, pink, a lime green bubbly jacket, and a dead horse.
Right off the bat, we saw a girl in a pink hoodie. "Is that Stephanie?" we asked each other. "There's only one way to find out," I said.
So, my friend walked up to her table and asked her if her name was Stephanie. She abruptly said no.
So, we ordered Cokes and waited longer to see what or who would show up. There were clues everywhere. A lime green coozie, a horseshoe on the arcade golf game, a lady in a pinkish jacket.
But, nothing stood out as the thing.
After about an hour of sitting and watching and waiting, we decided that what we were looking for wasn't at this bar. So, we went to another bar.
We grabbed a bar stool, sat down, and surveyed the crowd. We listened to drunk karoake (and this was the last bar I got kicked out of). We spotted a girl wearing pink. The problem was, we couldn't find a window of time between her makeout sessions with her girlfriend to ask her if her name was Stephanie.
So, we waited, and watched, and listened.
My friend ran into an acquaintance that he knew, and they talked for a little bit.
After awhile, we decided that it was time to go. We didn't find what we were looking for, but found something else.
We were expectant. If there's anything I learned from this outing, it was that it's much better to be expectant than to not be.
At the first bar, the thing I was expecting didn't happen, but I got to hug my handicapped friend. Maybe he was who I was supposed to see. Maybe all the clues were supposed to just get me started so I would end up walking into that bar, on that night, to see that friend.
Maybe at the second bar, the clues were supposed to help us just get on our way, and to intersect my friend with his old acquaintance. Maybe those two people were who we were supposed to meet. Maybe we were supposed to do more. Maybe we were supposed to pray for them. Maybe we were supposed to encourage them.
Who knows?
It's way more fun to expect God to make something happen than to not.
When we're expecting something powerful, divine, weird, life-giving, and mind-blowing to happen in the monotony of life, our senses are heightened and we're looking for where God is moving. We're moving along lines that aren't our own. It sounds really absurd. We both felt that we were a little crazy, but in the end we had this feeling that we were doing something right. We were trying our best to follow this God we couldn't see, couldn't hear, and couldn't touch.
We were trying to unlock a mystery. We were going to any length to have a spiritual experience.
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