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Four Minutes With Dan

by James Barringer  
1/19/2010 / Christian Living


At work tonight, I had a strange craving to get a snack at the Target down the street from my job. This Target has a little cafeteria in it, with things like popcorn and hot dogs. But I didn't want a hot dog and I'm not allowed to eat popcorn; I just wanted to go. I shouldn't have been spending money either, because I'd just taken two weeks off work to visit family and should have been in saving mode.

For some reason, though, I couldn't stop thinking about the Target cafeteria, so when my break came around, I punched out and walked the four minutes down the road. The man working behind the counter was Dan. I had met him once before, a few months ago, the last time I had gone into the Target.

Little bit of backstory at this point. When I go out to eat anywhere, I try to tell my cashier or waiter or whoever that I'm about to pray to bless the food, and ask if there's anything I can pray for them about. I say "I try" because I only remember to do this about half the time. It's been a really cool experience, and it's a great, non-threatening way to begin discussing faith with someone. There's always a small number of people who aren't interested and tell me not to bother, but sometimes I really get to see into a person's heart. I'm on a first-name basis with two people at my local McDonalds (God help my arteries please), one of whom is a single mom going to college and working at McDonalds. Any two of those three would be overwhelming; she's doing all three at once. There was also a waiter, name and restaurant withheld for obvious reasons, who asked us to pray that God would help him get a green card so he could stay here in the United States. Things like that are just incredible.

So, when I met Dan back in November or whenever (I honestly don't even remember), I asked if I could pray for him and found out that he's a believer. He told me I could pray that he would get a better job, and I did, not just that night but every time I thought of him after that. I was a little bit curious today to see if he would still be there or if God had answered the prayer already.

When he brought my food out to me, I told him who I was and that I had talked to him before. I asked how his job search was going, if there were any new developments. He remembered me, and mentioned that he'd actually told his wife about me the first time I came in, because he was so uplifted by someone offering to pray for him.

Here's where things get really surreal. It turns out that, just earlier today, he made the decision to go back to school for computer-related things. Nobody except his wife knew it yet. We didn't get to talk for very long, because he was working and I was on my break, but we did get the chance to pray together. I got chills thinking about God's perfect timing. I can only imagine how encouraging it was to Dan that, on the very day he makes a life-changing decision, this almost-stranger rolls in and prays about it with him. If he'd had any doubts when he came into work that evening, I bet he didn't have them when he left. My inexplicable craving for Target cafeteria food wasn't quite so inexplicable anymore.

It's really amazing what God will do if we just give him a little bit of space to work in. What I've found, as I've been striking up conversations with strangers, is that it's ignited a hunger in me to see even more of these kind of stories. God has really made me aware of how many strangers I walk past every day, strangers who are beloved by God and desperately in need of a little encouragement, or even salvation. How many faces do you think you see in a day? How many opportunities are there, if you're looking for them, to start a relationship with a stranger?

The ability to do this is one of the things that has always impressed me the most about Jesus. In the story of the Samaritan woman, found in John 4, Jesus goes from total strangers to discussing the woman's deepest, darkest secrets in about two and a half seconds. Admittedly, he had an unfair advantage, in that he knew the needs of her heart without having to ask them, so you and I will have to work a little harder. We never really know a person's story, what they've lived through, or what problems are waiting for them at home. But maybe we can find out, if we just take the time to notice people and ask.

Perhaps my experience is not normative, but in the churches I've been in, most of my fellow believers have had zero or a tiny handful of lost friends (and, out of the ones who do have some, virtually all of those are co-workers). Let me tell you, talking to strangers is a great way to make lost friends. Simply by caring about their lives, you will be different from 99% of the people they meet in a day. I'm sure you don't need to be told that we live in an age where people are aching, absolutely desperate, for deep and meaningful friendships. If we in the body of Christ can't provide true friendship to them, they'll settle for the next best thing, which is plugging the hole with whatever lostness they can get their hands on.

Like I said, some of the people you talk to will be fellow believers, and you might be the way that God touches them. My friend Victor told me that he once asked a waitress if he could pray for her, and she burst into tears because she had been praying that God would send an angel to encourage her. Don't you wish that could be you? If you've never felt it, there's no describing the feeling, because it transcends words. Once you feel it, you know there is no substitute.

All you really have to do is create an opportunity for God to use you. Sure, he technically could make a lost person approach you and start talking about faith, but he tends not to - how often has this happened, in your experience? By making yourself available, by reaching out to people, you open yourself up to have those kinds of conversations with people who need it. I said it before: once you experience that feeling, there is no substitute.

I certainly don't write this as if I've figured it all out, because I'm in the same boat you are, just someone trying to do better today than yesterday. But I do know that my "today" involved a front-row seat to God's providence, and that I got to experience being the agent God used to encourage one of his children. It blows my mind to think that my tomorrow will be even better than that.

Jim Barringer is a 38-year-old writer, musician, and teacher. More of his work can be found at facebook.com/jmbarringer. This work may be reprinted for any purpose so long as this bio and statement of copyright is included.

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