So here I am officially one year into marriage and loving every minute of it. Before we were married everyone warned us that "the first year is the worst, but don't worry it gets better". Coming through our first year of marriage, Jay and I couldn't disagree with that statement more.. we loved our first year of marriage! I mean sure we had our share of fights, but who doesn't when you are constantly living with someone, whether it's your parents, siblings, spouse, etc. We've enjoyed establishing our home here at our apartment and having friends over, we've loved traveling for Jay's shows, and we are excited about the new ministry, "Guard Your Heart" that we have started.
We decided to spend our one year anniversary out in the mountains of Colorado. "Why Colorado?", that is the constant question we got from people back home and also from people out in Colorado. Our typical response was that our grandma let us use her timeshare and we could pick from a bunch of places all over the US and that we wanted something different from Florida, since we have been there twice since we've been married. Looking back at our trip we took last week I think I would have to change my response. So why Colorado? Because I believe that even though it was a vacation, God had a plan for us there in the small town of Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
One night we were in the hot tub at our resort and there was only one other family out there the same time as us. They had two young girls and so Jay and I played with them by throwing sinker toys into the pool for them to dive for. Later on as the family was getting ready to leave, the husband and wife came over and thanked us for playing with their kids. They continued to ask us "what we do" back here in Ohio. So Jay started to explain that he is a Christian solo artist and what that means, which typically doesn't get much of a response. This couple seemed really interested and then begun to share with us that they are also in the ministry. It took Jay and I off guard as I guess we don't normally meet fellow Christians in hot tubs, haha. They continued to tell us about how they run a ministry called Sk8 Church in Steamboat Springs. They go out to the local skate parks and provide dinner for kids and hang out with them and just be Jesus to them. They also have their own building where they have an indoor skate park and have youth group their on Wednesday evenings and open skate nights on Thursdays. They told us that if we were interested in sharing with their youth group that week that they could talk to the youth pastor about it, but at the same time left it open as it was our vacation and we may not want to do that on our vacation.
Jay and I's first response was that we would love to share with them. Yes, it was our vacation but as Christians we are called to do ministry and share with others all the time... we should never have a "vacation" from that. And so Jay immediately emailed this guy as soon as we got back to our room and set everything up. Wednesday evening we went down to Sk8 Church and Jay did a small concert, shared a message, and then did worship. It was awesome to see God use us in a place that we weren't even expecting. We went the following night as well down to the local skate park and hung out with kids and watched them skate. It was so awesome to be able to have this happen because typically Jay and I spend a ton of time trying to book shows, where this show was done 100% by God opening doors and wanting us to share there. There is no better feeling than to know you are doing what God wants you to do and for Him to provide the perfect opportunities.
Another awesome way we saw God work on our trip happened on our last day on our way home. We had flown into Denver and drove a rental car another three hours into Steamboat Springs. So as we were driving out of Steamboat Springs we passed a hitchhiker who looked fairly young. We didn't think much of it but had some casual conversation about hitchhikers like "I wonder if it's common to hitchhike in this area" and so on. We got a few miles out of Steamboat when I realized I had left some clothes back at the hotel. We quickly turned around and headed back and once again saw the same hitchhiker. This time we decided that if we saw him again once we stopped back at the resort then we would take that as a sign that we were supposed to pick him up. I think a little bit to our relief our hitchhiker was not there when we drove past again. We figured someone else had picked him up and were glad for that, we stated that "well if we would happen to see him again, we'll pick him up".
Well obviously God had a plan for us and this hitchhiker. We were about 40 minutes away from where we had last seen him, driving up in the mountains. As we're coming down the side of one mountain, to our suprise.. there he was. At first we passed him up because it happened so quickly but we remembered that we said if we saw him again we would pick him up. So thus we quickly turned around and drove back to him. He was super excited and threw his bag and guitar case in the back and climbed in. He said he needed to get to Winter Park which was about an hour and a half away but directly on the way to Denver.
So for the next hour and a half we got to know this guy. His name was Luke and he was only 19 years old. He doesn't have a car so he hitchhikes everywhere. He is an aspiring blues musician. He believes in God, yet doesn't go to church because he doesn't believe you have to go to a church to worship Him. He lives in a commune. He also comes from a pretty sad life where his mom and dad were never married, he was one of those kids who was an "accident" yet his mom decided to have him anyways. His mom and dad both are married to different people and have different families. All of Luke's siblings are half siblings. And so here's Luke thrown in the middle of all of this and not really having a place to belong.
We enjoyed that hour and a half in the car with him as he was super friendly and talked non-stop the whole way. He even got his guitar out and played us some of his music. We asked him if he had eaten lunch yet, as we were getting pretty hungry, and his response was that he hadn't and didn't have money on him. So we offered to pay for him if he wanted to eat with us. He suggested we eat at the "Crooked Creek Saloon", which is not the typical place Jay and I would eat at. But it seemed very important to him as this was where his parents first met. We ate lunch with him and learned more about him and told him about us and really just tried to let him know he was worth something. He was worth our time, he was worth our conversation, he was worth our lunch money. We then brought him back to him commune, which was by far one of the most interesting places I have ever been to. He showed us around his extremely tiny, fits only one person, log cabin. As we left he got Jay's facebook info and exclaimed, "This won't be the last you hear from me!".
As I said before, it feels so good, so right, to be doing what God wants us to do and just following through the doors He opens. Please don't read this post and think "oh Jay and Alisha look how great they are, they went and shared with that youth group and they picked up a hitchhiker". If you think that then you are missing the point of this post altogether. I want you to read this and think wow, look how great God is. Look at the amazing opportunities He provides if only we were willing to obey. Look at how He can use you no matter where you are. Look at the courage He gave us to do something we've never done and were nervous about doing... picking up a hitchhiker!
God wants to use you whether it's at your job, in your community, or even on your vacation. God has opportunities like these for all of us every single day. The question is are we willing to to be not so self focused and to see the needs of those around us. Are we willing to do whatever God calls us to do no matter how terrifying it may seem, no matter how crazy in the world's eyes it may seem.
Go look for ways God wants to use you and then actually DO those things. No excuses.
-Alisha
