A Gentleman, A Hurt Child & A Willing Disciple
I got a phone call today from a gentleman who encountered one of our teen random prayer teams at Books-A-Million. He told me about a particular young man in a group of three teens who asked if they could pray for him about anything specific. You see, our youth group has what we call GO Night once a month. We take our teens from their seats in a classroom setting to the streets of Jackson, looking for simple but real ways to reflect God’s love for people. We divide into several teams and do a variety of things. Last night’s GO Night sent three teams out: one to the hospital to pray over families in the ICU waiting room and visit a sick grandparent, one to Jackson Oaks senior care facility to visit an elderly member, and one to The Columns shopping area to pray with random people.
Having had a tough day, the gentleman approached by the team of teens was more than willing to allow these young men to lift him up in prayer. The gentleman, a teacher, has a 7-year-old boy in his class. This boy’s parents had gone through a divorce recently and the little boy was blaming himself for his parent’s breakup. The boy’s father had little or nothing to do with his son. When the boy would call his father, his dad wouldn’t even speak to him. With all this weighing on the gentleman, he proceeded to ask our teen spokesman to pray for this little boy (only giving him the boy’s initials).
The gentleman on the phone told me how this young man appeared to be a little nervous but proceeded to lift up a heart-felt prayer on behalf of the little boy and his situation. “This was by no means a canned prayer,” the gentleman related on the phone. “He poured his heart out in that prayer. And I want you to know that his prayer lifted my spirits and made my entire day. I went home and told my wife about how powerful the whole experience was.” As the gentleman was saying these words, tears began to well up in my eyes. All I could do was praise God. As I thanked the gentleman for relaying this information, he interrupted. “And what’s more, I found out this morning that the little boy he prayed for is spending the weekend with his dad.” Well, that was it. I was undone at this point. The gentleman wrapped up the conversation expressing his gratitude for sending out young people like this to make a difference in the lives of others.
Over the years, I’ve gotten a few calls from people in the community concerning teens being “out in town.” It’s often been complaints about what they’ve seen or overheard from a few of the teens that wasn’t characteristic of a disciple of Jesus. At first, that’s where I was afraid this gentleman was going. Boy, was I wrong! What’s worse is that on my home from church I had expressed to my wife my disappointment concerning the number of teens who weren’t at GO Night. God reminded me today that numbers aren’t what’s important. It’s the influence ONE follower of Jesus can have on others. It’s the spiritual growth this nervous teen who was willing to step outside of his comfort zone experienced last night. It’s the healing that God began producing in a broken relationship between a father and his son. It’s a man who thought his day was not so good, until God put him in the path of a willing disciple that changed the outcome of his day.
I’m quite certain that this teenage boy had no idea how God was going to use him when he woke up yesterday morning. Maybe we should all learn a few lessons from a teen who simply listened to God and acted in simple faith. To God be the glory!
