The sermon on our second Saturday night attending church together (we'd go to his church on Saturday evening, then I'd go to my own church on Sunday) was about leading an extraordinary life. It was a really powerful sermon and, in fact, we just ordered the DVD for it this week. In the sermon, the pastor spoke about how to discern when life-changing events are from God.
One of the things he discussed in the sermon were coincidences. Another was feeling pulled into a certain direction. Yet another was validation from the people around you, particularly the people who love you and are willing to be honest with you.
Well, Chris and I met through was seemed to be a simple coincidence then. After serving at my church's Thanksgiving dinner for the homeless, I decided I wanted to start serving on the homeless ministry. It was a life-changing event for me. I was still intimidated somewhat by the ministry, but I felt such a strong pull to do it that I couldn't deny it. I decided to start by serving at the Tuesday evening dinners that are hosted by my church every 2nd and 4th week of the month. Although it is not held at our church—it is held at a different church in downtown Ann Arbor—we prepare and serve the meal those weeks.
I went for the first time on the 2nd Tuesday of December. I got to serve the food, interact with a lot of people, and I helped clean up at the end of the evening. The funny thing is that I noticed Chris there that night. I didn't meet him that night, but I did see him in the kitchen. He, however, does not remember seeing me there before we actually met.
The 4th Tuesday was December 23, and it was to be a Christmas meal. Normally, I am working when the meal is prepared and can only show up in time to help serve. But, because this was a few days before Christmas and my business partner and I had wrapped up our year-end work so we could have some time off for the holidays, I was actually able to show up early to help prepare the meal.
I was pretty excited about helping prepare because, generally, I like to cook, and this would be such an awesome cause. When I got there, I was told to starting peeling hard-boiled eggs. Chris had just started peeling. There were a lot of other jobs to be done in the kitchen that day, but because of the timing when I showed up, the biggest job at hand was hard-boiled eggs—20 dozen hard-boiled eggs.
There were actually a couple of other people helping Chris (they were all still on the first dozen eggs), but for whatever reason, they were kind of spread out, instead of around the two giant bowls where we had to put the peeled eggs. So, I grabbed the most convenient space that would allow me the easiest access to the unpeeled eggs and the bowls for the peeled eggs.
In addition to there being so many eggs, these eggs had been refrigerated overnight, and they were not easy to peel. The shells would shatter into tiny pieces that were nearly impossible to peel. Sometimes, the entire egg white would come off with the shell. When I walked up, what had been peeled looked pretty pitiful. My eggs were no better. They were impossible to peel, and we were creating dents, holes, and ugly pock marks in just about every egg we peeled.
After a while, I suggested we soak the eggs in warm water to help the peeling process. It did help a bit, making the eggs a little easier, but we were there for what seemed like hours. And it just so happened that Chris was the person standing directly across from me while we peeled these eggs. It was miserable work... and we had a great time. We talked and joked and laughed and, basically, got to know one another. By the time we made our way through all 20 dozen eggs, we had become friends.
When the eggs were done, we were each given another task. I moved to another space in the kitchen and began working on my task. When Chris was given his task and was looking for space, I was glad when he came over to my table to work, and I quickly helped him clear out space across from me again.
During the course of the evening, Chris asked about whether I was planning to come out on Friday nights (which is the night the homeless ministry delivers food to people in one of the parks in downtown Ann Arbor). The reason I had come to the Tuesday night dinners to serve was because Friday nights in the park was still a little intimidating. I told Chris, truthfully, that I was planning to come eventually, but probably not until after the beginning of the year. Chris encouraged me to come out and told me what a blast it was.
The end of my previous relationship was still stinging, and I hadn't completely given up on it yet, but meeting Chris that night put a smile on my face. As I left there, this thought sprang to my mind:
When God closes one door, He opens another.I wasn't sure what that meant, or what it meant that I met Chris that night, but I was looking forward to finding out. So much so that I showed up that Friday night to go down to the park with the homeless ministry. Chris was right; it was a blast! I started going every Friday night (unless I'm out of town or have to work) and never looked back.
One of the reasons I feel that this relationship was brought to me by God is because He used Chris to really get me to commit to serving. Then, He slowed things down for us. I knew I wasn't ready for a relationship...yet. That first Friday night, Chris invited me to go to his church with him the following night. Without quite knowing why, I accepted. When we went to church, Chris made his interest clear, but I knew I had to take time to move past my last relationship and offered only friendship. And, although there were times that Chris wasn't sure he could be just friends with me, we found our friendship growing.
But one of the other things I find really interesting is, now that we've moved into a romantic relationship, so many of our friends are coming forward telling us that they noticed when we started spending more time together, and they were praying that we would get together, or they hoped we would, or they were just excited when we did.
So, we met because we just happened to stand across the table from one another while we peeled hard-boiled eggs. I know that I was pulled to be there that night. I had been feeling pulled toward the homeless ministry since August, but for whatever reason, I only started serving there in December when my relationship was ending. And then there's all the validation I keep getting from all of our friends.
But the biggest thing of all is how different and exciting and wonderful this relationship is. I feel it in my heart every day that this is from God. Everything changed when I met Chris. Frankly, it blindsided me. I didn't see it coming, but looking back, in hindsight, I can see how God set it all up. And I am very grateful for his awesome wisdom and love. He knew exactly what Chris and I both needed, and He brought us together to fulfill those needs for one another. And He did it with hard-boiled eggs. He's an awesome God!
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