Small Encounters of the Significant Kind
It was just a typical day, except something in my spirit told me to be on guard. Something didn't feel right, and I had been asking God to help me see and to reveal His truth to me in this challenging, confusing place where I had found myself.
I'm pretty transparent and struggle if I feel people's actions don't match their words. However, I'm completely okay if I know what I am getting! If one claims one thing and does another, I lose it, especially if it means treating someone less than for their benefit.
Without getting into the details, God thoroughly answered my prayers. It was a hard truth. One that left me broken and on an incredible journey to find healing. I walked into where my husband was sitting and told him something had broken in me. I felt it, and it hurt. It felt like a physical undoing of my heart.
His name was BH (for privacy's sake). BH and I accidentally met somewhere in a trauma space for me. We connected almost immediately. A witness to the event was taken aback by my ability to connect with a stranger on the level we did. Unfortunately, our time together was short-lived, only 5 minutes. People's reaction to him was unpleasant, but that I would have been able to get over. Sure, he may have had issues, don't we all? However, our labels or biases, whether conscious or unconscious, can potentially cause severe harm to people. Regardless, all people have value, and how we treat people reflects our character. I know I've had to apologize many times. I can overreact like a pro, and sometimes I hurt people. However, my actions typically aren't to cause people harm intentionally.
I was a girl that was told on multiple occasions I would never be worth anything! If you hear it enough, it's hard not to believe, no matter how hard you fight against the lie. That lie plays in the background of my mind. That is the space where BH and I met. It is a space I was fighting for myself at that moment and for him without even realizing it. Why do people intentionally try to cause harm to people when they are trying their hardest to survive instead of helping in that place? I will never understand.
We both lost that day, but I gained so much more because of you. Thank you, BH, for making me want to be a better human! A line was crossed that day for me, one I couldn't recover from alone. God used our encounter to make me want to attend graduate school. God used our encounter for me to finally seek help from a therapist for all that has happened the past few years of our life. God used our encounter to help me heal from the words from my past. God used our encounter for my husband and me to work on our marriage to recover and heal from the toll mental illness had taken on it. God used you to strengthen our resolve, completely changing our family's trajectory! Finally, God used you to move us to Brewton.
Oddly enough, in 1995, God used another 5-minute encounter at Jim's work to move us to Brewton.
If you don't think your minute's matter, they do! God can use small encounters to work in significant ways. Words are important, and they leave an impression. So make the most of them.