I love when God brings something full circle in my life! Because I am so relational by nature, He always uses people and relationships in my life to speak to me through. Today was no exception...in fact it blew my mind how personal the God of the universe is to me and how absolutely, ridiculously involved He is in my life (and yours if you let Him)!
A while back my husband and I were invited to visit our long time friends church just because they wanted us to come see their church and and give our perspective on it so we agreed to visit for the morning but never expected what personal gift God had in store for me. As we were driving there, we were running late and quite honestly I just wasn't feeling it...we almost turned around and just went to our church....but something inside me said I needed to go....I thought it was for my friend but I was wrong!
This was a huge church and lots of people everywhere, the foyer was packed and people were bumping into us. We recognized somebody we used to know so he ran up to us, hugged us and caught up a bit with us and I asked where do my kids go for children's church? He walked us over to the kiosk and said take good care of these people they are dear friends of mine (this wasn't the friend we were visiting...but a different friend but if you know me for a half a second you know that I love people and make it my life's goal to meet and befriend as many people as humanly possible in this life so I run into people I know everywhere!! ;) Anyways, the woman who did the check in asked if we were visitors and I said yes we are and as the last word in that sentence was complete I heard a voice to my left that asked a simple question of me.... "Are you sure you are a visitor" I turned my head to see this woman standing next to me smiling ear to ear. Slightly startled by the question, I looked at her and didn't recognize her but said said, um yes I am a visitor and she interrupted me and said Amy Pochodaj it's me (yes, that is my crazy maiden name....so clearly this was someone from long in my past) so she said her name with tears in her eyes. Are you sitting at the edge of your seat?? I had you from my first line didn't I? As she said her name, my eyes welled up with tears at who my eyes were looking at.
You see I went to a public school, my parents had gotten saved when I was around 9 and there was no Christian school around so I was the kid who's parents got radically (and I mean radically saved...the no Santa Claus, no Halloween, no Easter bunny....Keith Green kind of saved) so naturally I followed suit and talked to everyone in my public school about Jesus. I was never afraid of it but always had a heart for evangelism and God knows a public school is a ripe harvest! So, everyone I could tell about God I would and I never pushed it on anyone but was outgoing and friendly enough to have people listen. Well, this one girl I had talked to about God often wasn't a Christian in school but 20 years later she visited my mom and dad's church and she went up to the alter to give her life to God and as my mom knelt down to pray with her she looked up and said, you are Amy Pochodaj's mom aren't you...she said yes and after me planting a seed in heart 20 years earlier God had my mom lead her to the Lord!! How cool is that!?! I love when God does crazy things like that!! Well, my mom never saw her again (that was several years ago). I hadn't seen her since our graduation day....until today!
She looked at me and I was speechless because I knew the whole story of how God used me and then my mom in her life! I just said...uh...you...uh my mom prayed...uh! I'm sure I sounded like an idiot but I was so humbled by how God did this! And that I got to see it all come to fruition! She hugged me and said, I'm here, Amy, and I'm serving here at this church and I'm alright (she had not been alright from what I remembered but God totally had changed her life and has given her a hope!) She told me her kids come there but her husband doesn't and I said...yet...he doesn't come yet, but we will just keep praying! It took my dad a couple years after my mom to come to church! It took everything in me to not full out start crying there at the kiosk with her in amazement!! I sat down in the service and just began to cry at how intricately involved in our lives God is! And how much He loves people and loves relationships with people! It is His joy to show Himself to be so real in our walks with Him! And today at exactly 10:00am He wanted me to know He loved me and showed me the fruit of something I had sown into 22+ years earlier! You never know how your life will impact somebody elses! If God is asking you to speak to someone, don't hesitate! He knows the big picture and you may never see how it turns out but God does and their eternity is weighing in the balance! Your words may impact a person in ways you never may understand but God understands what somebody needs to hear and when they need to hear it....He may be asking you to speak into their life. Don't get discouraged if you can't see a response right away...you have no idea how God may bring it back around full circle 20 years later! God's idea of time is so different than ours is.
