I hate the fact that people rag on clichés. Maybe it’s the hipsteresque vibes reverberating throughout our culture that scares us from liking anything likeable, but the truth is clichés are cool. Want to know why they’re cool? Because they’re usually at least a little bit true! If that wasn’t the case, then no one would have said them in the first place, and they never would have become cliché!
Why do I say all this? Because ‘God works in mysterious ways’, that’s a cliché, and it’s true! Few things exhibit this better than S and A, two new friends I’ve made here in the city. They’re refugees from a nearby country steeped in a civil war. They’re desperate for a life that can’t be found in their homelands, and full of hopes and dreams of a better life for their selves and their beautiful families. The thing about S and A is, after seeing so much violence and horrid things happening through the hands of their ‘brothers’, they’ve become particularly interested in our Shepherd, the Prince of Peace. This interest came, not because some bold western worker came up and proclaimed the Good News to them, but, instead, because a fearful, timid believer from their home country named G read the Bible to them when they came to our city.
This believer, G, was my closest Arab friend in the city. He always seemed the shrink away from being bold about following Jesus to the point that it perplexed me, and honestly, often caused me to doubt G’s sincerity. He loved to read the Bible, sing praises, and pray, but only in the context of foreigners.
Sure enough G returned to his home country a few weeks ago, but introduced me to S and A before he left. One evening, I joined the two of them for a casual meal and the required tea afterwards, more out of obligation than heartfelt conviction. While I prayed before we met, it felt more like a casual toss up to God than an earnest plea. The conversations were pleasant, the tea was hot, and the food was filling, but nothing supernatural. It wasn’t until A started sharing his frustrations and hurt over his country’s war that things took an unexpected turn. “I want you to know, me and my friends pray for your country, often.” I told him. The next couple minutes of the conversation went something like this: “Do you go to church here? It’s in Arabic? Can we come with you? We want to visit. Do you read the Bible? Could you send us some stuff for the Bible on our phones? We haven’t read a lot, only the stuff G read to us.”
I was floored. Since that conversation S and A have gone with us to a local Gathering here. Came over the read the Bible with us, continue to ask for material to read on their own, and seem interested in continuing. All of this happened because God chose to use a fearful, timid friend to plant a small, powerful seed. It’d be great to see it shoot up and bear fruit, I’d be lying if I didn’t say this. But for now, it has been a privilege just to see it beginning to sprout. Who knows what will happen, but God works in mysterious ways.
Pray for us!