I was meeting some new friends in Downtown LA to go out for a shoot around and get some city pictures. As I circled the block a few times to find parking I finally found a structure that looked like I could park in. Since the sign said public parking, I pulled in and looked around. $9 parking, not bad for downtown so continued to the collectors booth. But as I pulled up, there was nobody there taking money, so cautiously I looked around looking for signs and everything seemed legit but no human. I parked and called my friend to see where they were at and she said on the corner of 1st and Hope. Sweet!!! I was on 1st street so started walking down the street to find Hope.
Already a little late, I decided to ask somebody walking down the street where it was, and they pointed me in the way I was already walking. So I kept walking, and asked another person just to confirm that I was going the right way. “Yeah, I think it is down the way you are going.” But something didn’t seem right and now at this point I really had to pee! So there was a cop ahead and I knew he had to know where hope street was, so I asked him. He looked up the street in the way I just came from and said, yeah it is back that way. Great!! So took a detour to the bathroom, came out and started to head back the way I came.
As I was looking for Hope there was this homeless guy crossing the street with a huge backpack and his hands full with two other big bags. I just felt a tug to really talk to him so I threw out an icebreaker, “Got your hands full yeah?” He looked at me and said “yeah,I can’t wait to put this stuff down and be a normal human.” I shot back with “You are a normal human being, the things you carry don’t make you who you are!” He smiled and said you are right!
I looked at him with sweat rolling down his face from the walk and the heavy luggage he was carrying around, and asked if He knew God. He looked at me and smiled. He said in 1975 God came to him in a dream and talked to him. He knew that at that point He was real and he wanted to live for Him. I looked at him in awe and shame of my judgement on this man because of his situation. God had him on the streets to be a light to others and he really just needed some encouragement because the world had been so heavy on him and had written him out of society as a nobody. He was an amazing man and all he needed was somebody to listen to him and say keep running the race. So i asked if I could pray for him and he said please pray that whatever God puts on your heart. When I was done, we had a HUGE smile on his face and was encouraged to keep running the race for Christ.
What I thought was a waste of time getting lost looking for Hope street, God had planned to bring hope to Lidell. It’s amazing what happens when you open your eyes to those around you. I left super encouraged by my brother and it turns out if I would have went the other way, it was the next street over. This detour set my night off right with an eye opening experience of Gods grace in search for Hope and that lead to another adventure of Joy in my heart!
I hope you are encouraged to be available for people, because you could be the encouragement that somebody needs to keep going! All it takes is a willing heart. 🙂
