A Strange Occurence

Monday was the first day above 80 degrees that I've experienced in a while. I'm usually not a fan of any weather above 75ish, but I decided to soak up the sun and sit outside on my university campus. Because of the warmth, I knew this would be a great time to work on my tan (not really...) and wear my Chicago Bulls Scottie Pippen tank/jersey (which I inherited from my sister who so graciously left it in her the closet of the room I moved into in our house after she moved to her apartment for college. Thank you sis! It still fits perfectly!)

I sat in the sun for quite a few hours, talking to people as they walked by, writing an article for the sports site I write for (time for shameless plug! I'm a sports writer for a small site, Sportsrageous.com. Though my position is unpaid, I love it still. Despite my Bulls jersey, which I wear because I appreciate great players in the NBA, I bleed Purple and Gold. Thus most of the articles I write are about my Los Angeles Lakers. The one I wrote most recently, if you're interested, is here. Even if you don't like the Lakers you should click on the link because I need people to "look" at it =P thanks), eating lunch, and planning what I needed to do the rest of this week.

This normally would be an unworthy of blogging, but something interesting and strangely cool happened. While I sat, I was having a texting conversation with my sister about a position(s) with Target which I had about 5 or 6 interviews for, yet failed to secure. I was disappointed, because I've been chasing a couple of specific positions in the Target district I'm in for over a year. The last text she sent me was talking about looking for where God will open doors for me. Then I was interrupted...

A tall somewhat awkward looking, blonde, bearded, white male calls out to me asking how I was doing. Since I noticed this guy previously, who happened to be sitting at a different table behind me, I knew I didn't know him and assumed he was calling out to someone else. Then he calls out again. I turn to see who he is talking to and there he was staring at me with a semi-creepy smile, looking at me as if he expecting me to know him. He looks like a person that first comes off as odd, but usually means well. I gave him a polite hello and attempted to go back to my article. He had other plans. Thus began our table to table conversation.

"I noticed you're wearing a Scottie Pippen jersey are you a Bulls fan?" he asks. I make sure to let him know I am NOT a Bulls fan, but a Lakers fan instead. We have small talk about basketball and the career of Scottie Pippen. Next the guy monologues about how God has been speaking to him through the number 33.

Scottie Pippen happened to wear the number 33, which is now on me, thus I guess he assumed God was sending me to talk to him. I didn't really want to talk

He continued the topic of 33, "Every time I look at my watch its like 12:33 or 1:33, I decided to carry a cross for Lent which is 33 days, Jesus lived for 33 years and only preformed 33 miracles that were written in the Gospels. 33 is a huge number for me right now."

I thought him weird to think all those things were God's way of communicating to him. He reminded me of a movie thriller in which the main character, Jim Carrey, sees the number 23 every where and thinks it is a sign. It is possible, but maybe his watch battery died thus it is stuck at 12:33? He was literally carrying a cross with him for the season of Lent, which I am fairly certain is 40 days, excluding Sundays. Jesus performed only 33 miracles? I haven't counted, but that might be true. My criticism continued to grow with every word he said, and still he had more to say.

Somehow he brought up allergies and started speaking about his friends being healed of their allergies. He voice mumbled a lot at this point, so it became difficult to understand him. I am pretty sure he mentioned a friend who was allergic to gluten and was healed from it. Unless I heard wrong, he also stated he had a friend who could not eat food since she was a baby, but was now healed and eating lots of food...I'm not sure if that is even possible, but if it is, it would be pretty incredible.

At this point I wanted to be done with this odd conversation and was able to subtlety beckon a friend whom I spotted from afar. I stated my goodbyes to him and tried to engage myself in conversation with my friend whom I hoped would rescue me. Unfortunately my friend left too quickly, and the interesting fellow got up out of his chair and stood close to me.

He got closer, almost to a point of discomfort, stopped and said, "I have a feeling that I should pray for you. Its no accident you're wearing the number 33, and I think this is God telling me to pray for you. If you don't mind, can I pray for you?"

I started out being skeptical of this guy, but like I stated earlier, it seemed like he meant well, so I allowed him to pray for me. I can always use some extra prayer. He put his hand on my shoulder, we bowed our heads and closed our eyes. The next 20ish seconds were awkward because all that could be heard was silence. Apparently, were praying in our hearts and not aloud or so I thought.

Like a booming sound, he started speaking, catching me off guard from the absolute silence he just broke. His prayer was simple, getting straight to the point.

During his prayer, I hear the words, "God open a door in his life and show him how to go through it." I began to recall those were the last words my sister told me before this guy popped onto the scene.

The wheels in my mind start turning and I come up with a new idea. If the Lord works in mysterious ways, perhaps it really was his plan for me to encounter this guy. Maybe I wore the number 33 so he could talk to me, instead of what I thought previously: me speaking to him. (Catch the difference?) I realize these are kind of big maybes, but then I think about my normal Monday routine consists of sitting in a nearby coffee shop instead of on campus. It makes me think that this occurrence is either really arbitrary, or very well planned out. I like to think everything happens for a reason.

I also my think my sister's prayers are working. When she is praying for God to open a door for me, and a stranger comes and prays almost literally the same words, its a strange occurrence. But it makes a believer that something is truly going to open soon, at some point, somewhere. I pray my eyes are open to see it.

Relatioinships and Hope

Everyone goes through heart break every now  and then in their lives. Mine recently comes from a girl I've been dating for almost ten months. Our surprising end was a shock to my friends whom I had to tell and even more so to myself.

The feeling of a breakup is hard to explain because it is different to everyone. But I think the following paraphrased words of Regina Spector shows them the best:
     Its like forgetting the words to your favorite song. You can't believe it; you were always singing along. It was so easy and the words so sweet. You can't remember, as you try to move your feet attempting to feel the beat. You put your headphones on to drown out your mind and hear the song once more. It just doesn't sound the same.
It feels like that; so much more and nothing less.

Fortunately, for every broken heart, there is hope. Life is like a romantic movie where the protagonist has his/her heart broken in the beginning and somehow they find hope, then love by the end. They may have lost their identity for a time, their belief in love, or perhaps their will to even try, but they come back and find themselves in a place that is astonishingly better than before. Yesterday, I found hope.

I went to have an interview at the Target district office in Santa Fe Springs, Ca. and sat for nearly two hours in a room with about 20 other candidates while we waited for our names to be called. It was at the beginning I met a girl named Amy. Amy was from a rival school of my university, but I accepted her as a friend once she admitted she wish she attended mine! Rival school or not, we had great conversation together.

The conversation I had with Amy were hardly work related. Family, ethnicity, TV shows, schools and upbringing are only the topics I can remember. Our similar spirits allowed us to be honest with one another and led me to believe we could very well be friends outside the doors of the Target office.

At one point family and personal relationships came up. We laughed about how both of us had similar families: Very conservative, Christian, have a strong sense of family, aren't exactly "normal", whose strong willed and up front nature has a tendency to scare friends and even lovers away sometimes.

I mumbled something about how I've lost lovers because of family. They either didn't understand the up close and personal nature our my parents culture (which roots in their Italian and Mexican heritage - two very family oriented, loud and no need for personal space cultures) or mistook their actions for intentional aggression. Then I said hopefully I'll find someone that will put up with them as I do.

Then hope stepped in. Amy responded to my comment, "I'm sure you will."

Half heartedly I answer, "I hope so."

Amy pauses for a moment, looks me directly in the eyes and says, "No, YOU WILL!" I was amazed at her confidence, as she continued, "If that is the desire of your heart, God will give that to you. From what I can tell, you're a good person, and I'm sure God can see even more than you. Every day there is a wife somewhere putting up with the issues, complaints, words of their mother/father-in-law when they don't have to. They CHOOSE to. Why? Because they love their spouse. God will lead you to someone who will give you that kind of love. It WILL happen." Then she went back to looking around at everyone else and their conversations.

The confidence of Amy took me completely off guard. But she inspired me to believe in something new. I don't believe there is "one" girl for me  that God has been saving and preparing for me. That is just too silly. But what I do believe is that the Lord leads and He provides. I didn't think God would interfere with relationships, but if it is the desire of my heart, why not? Now, I have regained hope for my romantic future.