A walk in the park

Last night I was driving home from a meeting I had to attend, and I drove past this park that I used to go at night and pray a few years ago. Well, since I got married 3 years ago, I find it a little more difficult to try to take that time with God. That used to be my favorite thing to do.

But anyway as I drove by, the Lord asked me why I don't spend time with Him like I that anymore. He laid it on my heart to pull into the park and so I did. I got out of the van, put on the song "Give me Jesus" by Jeremy Camp and just continued to walk in the dark between these two softball fields. I just started talking to Jesus and thanking Him for bringing me here and all that he has done in my life.

After spending a while in prayer I started walking back to my car clear across the park. Then, something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. From a distance I saw this man rattling a plastic bag as he sat on one of the park benches facing the softball field. It was very difficult to see because it was so dark out. So, I kept walking but I started to think what if this man is homeless? It's cold out here and it's late. Where is he going to go? So I asked the Lord what He wanted me to do. Should I go up to him? What would I say? Should I offer him a ride anywhere? Should I buy him food? I don't want to scare the poor guy, after all we are the only two people in this big park late at night. And I, being a total stranger, just walk up to him? Kinda creepy I admit.

After struggling with the idea of going up to a total stranger who appears to be homeless in the dark late at night in a park with no one else around, I finally gave in to the Holy Spirit and started to pursue this poor soul who needs Jesus. I thought to myself, I am doing God's work right now. This feels good. I'm going to help this poor man and then he is going to thank me and I'll be good with the Lord and I can go back home to my wife and family so I can brag about how I've been a servant doing God's work helping a homeless man…. Just being honest.

As I approached him I said “I was in the park praying and felt lead to come over and talk with you”. I explained to him I used to come here all the time and pray and having a big family lately has distracted me from doing so. He said... "Yeah". So, thinking he was going to give me some sad story of him being homeless tonight and that he has nowhere to go, I asked him "What are you doing here"?

And this is when I started to be humbled and surprised by his answer… He said with such a meek, gentle smile and tone…”Why am I here? Well I am here to talk to people about Jesus.” Umm…I thought to myself, we are the only ones here and it’s dark! What people is he talking about? Anyway, we continued talking about our Lord and before I had shared anything at all with this man he starts telling me Satan is after my family! Wow!!! Blown away again! Over the course of three years of being married, my family and I have been through some pretty rough spots. I’m not going to go into all of that but those rough spots were pretty significant to say the least. And here lately in the past month, we as a family have been hit with some more intense drama that can easily bring division between me and my wife. So, I briefly shared some of those things with my new meekly mannered friend Anthony. He simply said “don’t give up! You will be ok, just keep loving the Lord and seek him like you did tonight. And keep loving your wife.” I asked to pray for him and he was grateful. Then he prayed for me. He laid one hand on my shoulder and my other hand he held in his. As he started to pray, his words were powerful and started to shake me and physically move my body as he rebuked Satan and his demons to leave me and my family alone! That prayer came straight from his heart! He was so passionate about it. Then we said our good byes and I went back to my van.

Isn’t it funny? I went over to that man thinking I was going to bless him and do something wonderful for God by being a servant to this man… Reality was, I was the one who got blessed last night! I was the one who was broken and needing Jesus! And Jesus knew it!

Don’t ever think, just because a man wearing worn-out clothes and has a plastic bag for his home, he doesn’t have anything to give and to bless somebody with! This man lead me back to Christ. That gift is priceless!!!

-Doug McGowan