Healing Hearts With Truth

The other evening an interesting thing happened when my husband and I decided to go out to dinner. We chose a buffet style restaurant and as I'm coming around the corner back to our table, I see and hear our waitress singing to the song coming over the intercom. When she realized I saw her, she looked a bit embarassed. I said oh I caught you singing, at which she replied, yes you did. I do my own concerts a lot when I'm here. She then apologized for singing. I told her there's no need to apologize and told her I'm a singer myself. That opened the door for me to tell her about my band and I did so by explaining how my wristband would bring up links to our music by her tapping her phone on it. She was intrigued but the moment I said we are a "Christian" rock/metal band and asked her if she would like to hear one of our songs, it was clear by the look on her face that she wanted to leave the table quickly. She was polite but she left abruptly at that moment. Because it was her job, she came to our table a few more times but it was strictly to do her job and leave again. When we were almost finished, another waitress came to take care of us. My husband thought maybe it was due to a shift change. That was possible, but in the back of my mind I was thinking I had probably scared her away and therefore she had probably asked the other lady to take care of us. It was a few minutes later and our original waitress had resurfaced and while she was seating new customers, she kept glancing our way. Finally she decided to come back to our table and it was clear she seemed troubled. We didn't say anything, just waited for her to speak..and she did. The first thing she said was, so you're in a metal band. I said yes. She then asked if I was the singer and said she's always thought about the talent it takes for a female to sing metal music. Another doorway opened and I took it. I asked her if she would like to hear a song and she was curious and said yes. I wasn't sure what God wanted me to play for her so as I'm scrolling through our songs on YouTube, I was asking God which one would speak to her. The song Pray To You came to my mind. I began to play it and she commented on the beauty of my voice and how much she really liked the music. Then the surprise and excitement left her face and she abruptly said so what religion are you, what church do you go to? I felt the Lord hold me back from answering her questions and instead I heard myself ask her, what do you believe? She stretched out her arms and said, oh I'm spiritual, I believe in everything. I asked her to explain what she means by "everything". She said, she believes it all. Then she really got to what I felt she had been wanting to say all along. She said, I used to go to church but pastors judge you and we aren't supposed to judge anyone and pastor's are the worst. Another door opened for her to hear the truth and I said, well I'm a pastor and that's not entirely true. We are told to judge, but not through condemnation but rather through righteousness, and a Christian is not to judge an unbeliever. She repeatedly said thank you and smiled. I gave her examples of the difference between righteous judgement and condemnation. She was clearly interested in hearing this and continued to say thank you. I followed up with scripture where Jesus said forgive them Father for they know not what they do. I explained the reason why Jesus said this and how if we truly knew how much things we say and do can grieve the heart of God, we wouldn't do those things. She agreed. I proceeded with saying how sorry I was for what she's gone through with pastors, Christians and people in general. She had tears in her eyes and spoke through a shaky voice as she began to tell me how she used to be an addict and is now 36 years sober. My husband and I smiled, commended her and said we are proud of her for beating this for addiction is not an easy thing to overcome. She thanked us and then I went back to the first part of our conversation and asked her again, what she believes. I felt in my spirit that she had been hurt for so long that she really didn't want to believe in anything but wore a mask so no one could hurt her anymore, especially Christians. She didn't know what to say. Door opened..I began to explain how in different religions they pray to and may even ask forgiveness from a certain person or deity. I further explained how people need to forgive each other, but that is so they can each move forward without hanging onto things they need to let go of, but that that is different than asking Jesus to forgive our sins. I explained how out of all religions, Jesus is the only one that gave His life for us and therefore He is the only one with the authority to forgive us of our sins through repentance. I could see that I had her attention but someone at a table was waving her over. She started to walk away but came back quickly and handed me her small notebook and asked me to write down my band info and videos of me preaching. I did both and when she came back to our table I talked to her about Jeremiah 29:11 and as I was reciting it to her, she joined me in reciting it. She said it was her favorite scripture and told us how it helped her get through the addiction. She also said another was "And this too shall pass". She said she stands on these two scriptures. She thanked me again as we were leaving.

The take away.. God opens doors for us to reach out in kindness, not reckless judgment in order to help, heal and promote truths where others may have distorted it. Don't be afraid to speak up to help set a wrong right. Someone may need to hear words of love, and hope spoken through kindness in order to help them let go of the hurt and move forward in faith.