Windows to Heaven

Saturday night James and I had some kids over to the Buehler's (I'm house sitting while they ski in Utah) to hang out and play some Killer Bunnies and the Journey to Jupiter. Some people wanted to get some Chipotle so we headed up to the one in Finneytown. I was standing in line next to a guy who knew, but I couldn't place where or how exactly. Finally I said that I remembered him from somewhere, but didn't know from where. He said "Well I know who you are. Your name is Matt right?"

I still didn't know how I knew him until he said "When I was a freshman at Mt. Healthy high school I played basketball and you came to every game. You were the only one who supported us and we were horrible. I thought you were my only friend in the world."

It was like getting punched in the gut. That was the first semester I was leading. I remember one of the things someone said in NLT was that its a good idea to pick a sport and then go to every game, so I did. They won 3 games that season. I thought it was totally wasted time honestly. I never got to hang out with any of those kids even once. I never saw any of them come to Christ, or do anything like that. We closed down Young Life their junior year at which time one of the kids was in juvie. We say in Young Life that you never know the impact you make. To be honest I never bought into that much, at least I never fully believed it, but here was a case where exactly that happened. It was crazy!

We didn't talk about anything faith related. He told me he was at ITT Tech working on a Computer Drafting program. He is doing a co-op next semester. This conversation was a gift to me I think. It gave me a fresh faith to do contact work and spend time investing in kids even when I think they don't notice. Thinking about it later I realized again that god is faithful even when I am not.

After we got our food he left and we stayed. I'll probably never see him again, but that wasn't the end of this story. Maybe the best part was still about to happen. Joe, one of my guys, is a senior at CCS and wants to lead next year when he goes to UC. He saw this whole conversation unfold and thought it was sort of creepy and awkward. He asked me about it, and I saw a great opportunity to give something away. I got to talk with Joe about contact work and what leading Young Life is about, and most importantly about the faithfulness of God. It was one of my best moments as a leader.

I think its interesting that this whole set of interactions had nothing to do with me and everything to do with God really. I was focused on getting some burrito, and God was orchestrating something amazing in my life and in Joe's.