Keep Telling Your Story

I was talking to a woman tonight whom I had only met once before. The first time we met was at the engagement of two of our friends and this time it was one of their birthdays. To celebrate him his fiance planned a day at Universal Studios followed by dinner at City Walk (I have a point I promise!). The woman asked me why I hadn't been able to join them at the park earlier that day and I told her it was because I was up until 3am doing street outreach and was a basically a zombie until the afternoon.

Having only met one other time we had never talked about After Hours, she had no idea I was a part of the ministry. She was intrigued and asked a lot of questions including how I got into it myself.
I began to tell her of a young woman in college who believed God was calling her to reach out to women in prostitution. I told her how I knew it sounded a little weird to say "God told me" but that was the most accurate way to explain it, I just knew it was what God wanted me to do. I also knew that it was crazy.

I went on to tell her the rest of the story, how I was scared, how I was frustrated in the waiting, how I prayed for so long and how God again spoke to me showing me where to find the ministry I had been looking for. I've been telling this story for ten years and it still brings tears to my eyes. God spoke to me. God led me. God answered prayer. God empowered me. God breathed life and vision into me. God did exceedingly more than I could have imagined. God was faithful.

This weekend was really difficult. It was challenging personally and challenging in ministry. On Friday afternoon I was so overwhelmingly discouraged I found myself in a pile on my floor flooded in my tears. And it's about 30 hours later and God has been faithful once again. He has lifted my head one more time, wiped away my tears and opened my eyes to the hope that surrounds me. You know what the same woman said to me tonight, almost offhand but I'm convinced straight from the Holy Spirit? She said, "where there is life, there is hope, and we are still alive." Woah. I mean, woah.

There is hope in remembering too. In the retelling of our stories. Tell your stories and ask people to hear their stories too. We need to remember, we need to retell. God has been faithful and He will be again. God speaks to us, God leads us, God hears us, God answers us, God cares deeply for all of us. God is faithful.