The session had just ended, so we were filing out of the aisle, ready to exit the auditorium, along with the 2,000 other people attending the conference, when she timidly approached me with a smile. Her eyes were kind, and she seemed shy and a bit nervous too.
“Could I share something with you?”
We stepped out of the way of the crowd. She shifted on her feet, explaining, “I really don’t have anything profound to say, and I’m not very good at this, I’m just trying to be obedient to God.” I smiled and encouraged her that she didn’t need to say anything profound, I was up for anything she had to share! She slowly began,
“Well, these past two days I’ve been watching you, you and your husband here with your kids, and I feel like God wants me to tell you something.”
I was all ears.
And then she spoke, the simplest sentence of encouragement, but as soon as I heard it something broke inside and I just wept. It was exactly the affirmation my heart needed, that only God could know that I needed, exactly the word that lifted my weary heart and affirmed the mundane worship I offer to Him each day.
She went on with other things, and prayed for me, which was so kind and thoughtful. I could tell she truly cared about me, I could feel the Father’s love through her. I went home tear-stained, but full and encouraged. Sure, the conference had many famous speakers standing on the stage, some of which traveled across the world just to be there, but the most powerful words for me were from the mouth of a simple, timid girl who was willing to walk across the room, to risk, in order to show me God’s love.
I typed an email to some friends, sharing my experience, and wrote, “this experience encouraged me that often the greatest moves of the Spirit are simple, quiet, ordinary. And that He can use simple, ordinary people, just like us, to tremendously encourage others. I want to be like Kat.”
Often we think of prophecy, or words of knowledge (1 Cor. 12:8), as spectacular and dramatic, and perhaps they sometimes are. But my experience with Kat inspired me even more to listen carefully for His voice in the midst of ordinary life. It might be ordinary me, or ordinary you, who God wants to use to profoundly encourage someone today.
In fact, I would see this play out just a few days later … More on Monday. Thanks for reading!}