The miraculous, the mundane and the plain weird

True confession: I don’t love treasure maps.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, check out my previous post called Finding His Treasure.

Showing someone that they’re on a map and explaining the whole treasure hunt thing just seemed fake or contrived to me. I’d rather just naturally start talking with people in the coffee shop line-up or in the produce department at the grocery store. But one morning before treasure hunts, a fellow BSSM student asked our leader if he was required to use the map.

The leader said yes, the treasure map can be really powerful. So, I said to the Holy Spirit, “If it’s true that the treasure map is important, can you make something match up on my map today?”

So we set out on our treasure hunt.

It wasn’t the best treasure hunt ever. Our first treasure was a former Bethel student. She was encouraged but it seemed like our words and prayer for her didn’t really rock her world. Then we felt we should walk into a hair salon and bless it. It was a little scary, since we ended up in the middle of the salon with everyone watching and listening. But the owners smiled and seemed to appreciate our blessing, so it was all good.

When the treasure hunt was over, we realized that we’d lost one of our drivers and we had one person too many for the car. I volunteered to wait for Andrew to come and pick me up.

Now I should mention that two clues on my treasure map were “someone approaching me” and “shaved head.”

I was standing there waiting for Andrew to pick me up, and this young guy approached me (!) and said, “I just got my hair cut, but I feel like she just shaved my head. What do you think?”

He and I started to talk. I felt like God was saying something about a job for him. So I said, “Are you looking for a job?” He said that he didn’t have a job but he’s not sure if he wants one because he’s on social assistance. I said, “Oh, because I feel like God wants to provide a good job for you.” He said, “I’ve had experiences with God.”

Really? Wow. He went on to describe a couple of God encounters he’s had amidst his drug-riddled meditation life. The funny thing was, the two God experiences he described sounded authentic to me. He said the supernatural peace he received from God once—when he was not stoned—was way different from a drug high.

I asked him if he wanted to experience another encounter with God. He said no.

As with Rick in my previous post, I felt God's love and compassion for this sensitive, spiritual young man. So I tried to encourage him with some of the amazing things I was sensing about him, but he kept interrupting.

So I listened a lot.

When I knew Andrew would be pulling up any minute, I asked if I could pray for him. He said only if he could pray for me. I was a bit hesitant—after all he did tell me he’s possessed by a demon. But I said okay. He said, “Dear God, bless this nice lady. I hope she has a good day.” I was really touched. Once again I remembered how the Lord promised to encounter me with His love on the streets of Redding.

When I prayed for the young guy, I prayed for more encounters with God, for victory in his life through Jesus, for freedom and love and life and peace.

In reality, most treasure hunts are kind of like this one: a mixture of the miraculous, the mundane, and the plain weird. To be really honest, I don’t know whether our conversation or the prayer were meaningful to him. He didn’t seem to care much what I said. I’m not sure I did a great job of sharing Jesus’ love with him—I even forgot to ask his name.

But I believe that this young man is God’s treasure. And I believe that any time we pray in Jesus’ name, something powerful happens. And I know that his prayer blessed me.

Most of all, I have the conviction that both he and I are God’s beloved children and our Heavenly Father will continue to seek us out to bless us, regardless of how we respond. 

- Anne