US columnist CAROL ROUND reflects on an opportunity she had to encourage another during a visit to a park…
Claremore, Oklahoma, US
PICTURE: Bruno Martins/Unsplash
“Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles” – Philippians 4:14 (NIV).
He was bored and lonely. I was overwhelmed. We both ended up at a local park seeking solace and quiet.
When he arrived at the lake, I was soaking up the sun as I sat at a picnic table with a notebook and pen. I was trying to make sense of my life and how I had let my to-do-list take over again.
“I don’t believe in coincidences. For me, it was an opportunity to be used by God to encourage another. That divine encounter was as much for my well-being as it was for his. Isn’t that just how God works?”
Putting my thoughts on paper helped me to re-evaluate my priorities. I looked up briefly when he stopped nearby and threw out breadcrumbs to the geese.
I finished my self-examination and decided to take my dog for a walk. who had been patiently waiting for me to finish my ruminations.
As I strolled by the water’s edge, I noticed the elderly gentleman sitting in a lawn chair underneath a shade tree. I started to walk around his resting spot and go in a different direction; however, I was drawn to his loneliness.
Striking up a conversation with him, I asked, “Are you enjoying the view?”
“Yes,” he replied. “I was bored at home.”
I shared my reason for coming to the lake on a hot August afternoon. I didn’t go into details but I told him I was trying to slow down and let go of those things that weren’t working in my life anymore.
He said he understood. I asked him if he did much fishing.
“Not anymore,” he said. “I just learned my brother is dying of liver cancer. We used to be fishing buddies.”
As I saw the tears in his eyes, I said, “I’m so sorry.” I didn’t know what else to say.
Our conversation continued. We discovered during our discussion about our families that we had mutual acquaintances.
As our conversation drifted to a brief history of each other’s lives, we shared tidbits of our past. You know, the kind centring on where you were born and raised, career paths, and how you ended up at that present moment in time.
Our life stories were encapsulated in five minutes each. But we had connected.
I also learned his wife had passed away six years earlier. He’d sold his house in a nearby city and moved to Claremore in the same year I’d relocated here in the same year. Another connection.
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Steering the conversation back to his brother, I felt led to leave him with some encouraging words. When I revealed I was a 23-year cancer survivor, he said, “The doctor told my brother he doesn’t have long to live.”
It was then that the Holy Spirit led me to remind this lonely man about the One who created his brother and He had the final say on his brother’s last day on earth.
Smiling, he agreed. I wished him well and told him I would pray for him and his brother. We shook hands before I continued my walk.
My steps were lighter as I followed the path back to my parked vehicle. In my heart, I knew the divine connection we had just shared would cause ripples just like the water lapping against the shore from a passing fishing boat that afternoon.
When I woke up that morning, I was focused on my needs and my search for answers. But God had a plan when he led me to begin a conversation with a lonely stranger.
I don’t believe in coincidences. For me, it was an opportunity to be used by God to encourage another. That divine encounter was as much for my well-being as it was for his. Isn’t that just how God works?
