Free Advice

Forget what you learned growing up: always talk to strangers.

I should probably explain. After church today, Luke had the afternoon off and it was a beautiful 65 degrees out (a perk of living in Texas in January). After lunch we grabbed a blanket and books and drove down to White Rock Lake to relax, people watch and whatever else. I convinced Luke to walk a bit before settling in with our books, and we are so glad we did. Often when I have ridden my bike around the lake on Sunday afternoons I have noticed the guy with a tarp, a few chairs and a simple sign: free advice. I usually would muse to myself about it and carry on in my ride. But as we strolled near his "advice booth" today, the Lord placed an urge in my heart that told me to stop and talk to him. Luke is used to my random conversations with strangers and humored me as I walked over to the tarp.

The conversation started out simply enough - I noted that he was like Lucy in Peanuts and I thought it was a great idea - and he said he'd been there every Sunday afternoon for 13 years. After we talked about this and that for a bit, he asked what the story of the two of us (Luke and I) was. In short, I said we are married and are preparing to move to Africa for missions. He made an observation that I am a "Christian tomboy," explaining that he doesn't mean that in the skirts vs. jeans sense, but more that I am strong woman. Apparently his mom was a strong woman who forged her birth certificate at 15 to join the Navy and upon retirement gave away all she had and moved to Jerusalem to share the gospel with Orthodox Jews and Muslims. Something in the talk led me to ask if he had a church he went to here, and he said no, but with good reason...

Our new friend is autistic. He doesn't understand language in the sense that most people do, and though he is extremely intelligent and intuitive, words really mean very little to him. Processing information takes a completely different focus for him. He explained that his mother had asked pastors and priests to pray over him several times - not quite understanding how her son could grasp the Truth without loving the Word itself. Each time, the given pastor (there were two occasions with different ministers) would stop and say the Lord audibly told him that he should stop because the man was "right with God." He said he understands salvation in an experiential way. He feels the presence of God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit in a much different but very real way. He went on to explain a little more and then asked if I understood what he was saying. Leaning on the Lord's leading, I responded that scripture is the Word of God and is inspired by God - therefore God himself is in the words. This is why many people can read the words and get no meaning from them because the Spirit has not opened their hearts to the truth of the scriptures. God is not limited to His Word, but IS the Word.

(it sounded much more eloquent at the time, but that's the gist of it)

Well apparently I was the first person to ever understand him - and that I "said what he was saying but much more clearly." He said it was clear that I had a gift of discernment and that he has known many people in his life who have thought they were called to missions, and were not really cut out for it. He's seen many people who set out on that adventure only to realize it is not where God had them to be - but us - he could see that we were supposed to be going and that we would be great. He also asked about funding - whether we had to raise all our funding or if there was some sort of other source, and we said we have to raise it all but won't know exactly what that looks like for the long run until this summer or fall when we get our placement assignment. When he asked how we would do it, we said letters, visits to churches, etc, and that we're getting our start with letters for this upcoming trip. He asked if he could make a small contribution, pulled out his wallet, and gave us a large cash gift - and hugged both of us, telling us that we blessed him today and made it worth getting out of bed this morning.

if you wonder why I haven't used his name the whole time, it's because we went through this whole 40-or-so minute conversation without knowing his name. It was only as we were saying our good byes that I asked his name. Roderick. And we're not strangers anymore.

God is so good!