The Stranger with a Cigar One beautiful Sunday afternoon I decided to go to a local park to study. I had never been to this park before, but it was so pretty outside, I just couldn’t stay inside. I found myself a quiet little bench and did my homework there for a while. When I finished studying, I packed all my books up and started to leave. At this moment, the swing set caught my eye. I decided I would swing a little before I left for campus. The air was blowing my hair in my face, and my hands were getting sweaty from the chains. I had swung for only a few minutes when a strange guy with a cigar approached me. As I saw the strange guy approach me, my hands got cold and as much as I hoped he wouldn’t come my way, there he was; standing
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He told me where he grew up, where he went to school, how he got interested in criminal justice, and a little bit about his family. The stranger just kept going on and on about his life. He goes on to tell me about how he’s not sure what his next step in life should be. I felt the Holy Spirit tell me I needed to pray for him.
I asked him if I could pray for him and he eagerly said “Please, do”. I prayed over him and he thanked me. I don’t know why Joey came up to me and started talking to me in the first place, but I’m glad he did. People want to be heard. People want to feel listened to. I think one of the biggest communication problems we have is we don’t listen to understand people, we listen to reply to them.
God can use you in the strangest ways if you’re willing to hear his voice; no matter where you are. Even if you’re minding your own business at a swing set. The stranger with a cigar needed a friend and someone to listen to him. I’m glad God was able to use me as that person. I also learned that you can’t judge someone by the way they look. I was expecting the stranger with the cigar to be a really weird eerie guy, however, he wasn’t weird or eerie in any way. The moral of the story is to always be listening. Whether it’s listening to the Holy Spirit or a stranger with a
He told me where he grew up, where he went to school, how he got interested in criminal justice, and a little bit about his family. The stranger just kept going on and on about his life. He goes on to tell me about how he’s not sure what his next step in life should be. I felt the Holy Spirit tell me I needed to pray for him.
I asked him if I could pray for him and he eagerly said “Please, do”. I prayed over him and he thanked me. I don’t know why Joey came up to me and started talking to me in the first place, but I’m glad he did. People want to be heard. People want to feel listened to. I think one of the biggest communication problems we have is we don’t listen to understand people, we listen to reply to them.
God can use you in the strangest ways if you’re willing to hear his voice; no matter where you are. Even if you’re minding your own business at a swing set. The stranger with a cigar needed a friend and someone to listen to him. I’m glad God was able to use me as that person. I also learned that you can’t judge someone by the way they look. I was expecting the stranger with the cigar to be a really weird eerie guy, however, he wasn’t weird or eerie in any way. The moral of the story is to always be listening. Whether it’s listening to the Holy Spirit or a stranger with a