My Apocalyptic Mind

Something pretty cool just happened to me that I wanted to share. First, I need to introduce the other person that was involved. A few weeks back I stopped by the local Wing Stop to order some food on my way home from covering a Baseball game. If you don't call your order in ahead it's usually a bit of a wait, so I ordered and then took a seat. The young man who took my order, he looked like he was around 20 or so, said he recognized me from the newspaper. We struck up a conversation about movies and talked about my movie reviews and my work in journalism. About ten minutes later the food was ready and off I went. It was a nice conversation with a cool stranger, which is always awesome.

Fast forward to today. In the newest issue of the newspaper I wrote a column about a website that has me freaked out. The title of the column is "the Future Freaks me out" and is about this website that gets super detailed laying out all of the things that they predict will happen in the world. Disasters, crisis, all sorts of freaky stuff. I've always struggled with having a fear of the future, of apocalyptic things happening in the world. I'm a Christian and I know that we're supposed to trust in God and that the Bible says those who believe in him are going to have a good ending, but it's still an area I've had a lot of struggles in.

So anyways, tonight I spent the evening at my family's house. I left around 11 pm and decided at the last moment to go to the gas station to grab a Dr. Pepper. I get there and was sort of lost in thought as I walk up and I notice someone is holding the door for me. I look up and it's the guy from Wing Stop. We exchange hellos and that's about it and I go in and he goes in. He checks out before me but when I walk outside he's standing there waiting for me. I say hey again and ask if he just got off work since he was wearing his work shirt. He then says "I read your article today." We talk a bit about it, and I mentioned that yeah, I was really freaked out by some of the predictions and what the future holds. Then he says "I'm a Christian, and as soon as I read the article I just felt God speaking to me and laying it on my heart that I needed to talk to you about it." He then goes on to, very politely mind you and not at all in a preachy or disapproving manner, quote the Bible about how God doesn't want us to have a spirit of fear and stuff like that. He then admits that the only reason he waited for me was because it was just so amazing that after feeling so strongly that God wanted him to encourage me about fearing the future it was crazy that we'd run into one another that very night. We shook hands and I thanked him and mentioned how awesome it was that this had happened, and we were on our separate ways.

The whole thing was just so amazing though. I'm a pretty logical person, so I can tell you that the odds of running into this one guy at random like that are pretty slim, especially considering how many 24 hour gas stations there happen to be in our immediate area. It was just such a cool and uplifting reminder that God cares. He used this amazing young man who I've only ever met once, laid a message upon his heart, and then directed both of our paths to end up at the same exact place at the same exact time that very night. And the thing is, I've been in his shoes before, and he seems like a shy type of person like me, so I know how hard it is, even when you've got this spirit of the Lord sort of urging you forward, to step up and actually follow through with a conversation like that.

Anyways, it may not seem like anything special to some people and that's okay, but to me it was just such a blessing and a much needed reminder that I need to keep God on my mind and rely on him for all things.