LA Style Fashion Week. (Episode 2.)

The other day I attended a memorial service of an elderly man that I love dearly.

At the memorial I met a model.

She has been in the industry for a while and we realised that we have several mutual friends. She was a sweetheart and we talked about possibly grabbing coffee sometime soon, but I wasn't sure if it would actually happen because we are both so busy.

I hoped I would see her again.
She stayed on my mind for several days.
In fact she was on my mind pretty much daily....

until I ran into her again! Completely unplanned! Backstage at fashion week LA!

It was really amazing too because she actually wasn't supposed to be there. She hasn't worked this event in 6 years and was even afraid that she might get in trouble with her agency for doing this particular show.

It was a gift.

I was able to sit and talk with her backstage for almost an hour. We shared life stories and talked through our different experiences with God. The whole thing was so obviously orchestrated by Him. She was raised to love Jesus but throughout the last few years she had gotten really hurt by some of the most important people in her life. These people are all followers of Christ. Their rejection of her had led her into a bad depression and she began to question Jesus. She had hoped that everything she experienced with God before was really true, but in the chaos of her life as a professional model, and in the brokenness of the world around her... she was having some serious doubts about His love for her.... and ultimately about His existence.

I ministered to her heart the best I could and by the end of our conversation we were able to pray together. She was blown away that out of all places Christ could have shown Himself to her again... He would choose backstage at a Fashion Show. For her, there was no better place for Him to do that because it showed her that He sees her, He loves her, and He understands her....
all things she had questioned.

When Jesus walked the earth, He hung out with people who had hearts that ached. He didn't just hang out with them when they arrived to the synagogue. In fact He spent most of His time away from the synagogue. He would eat with them and drink with them. Meeting them right where they were. Talking to them using analogies of things they would understand. Even the religious people of His time questioned who He was hanging out with... because it was so "un-godly" in their eyes.

Now Jesus sits at the right hand of God in heaven, and He has given His Spirit to us as believers in Him. And He calls to do as He did.

I find that aching hearts are everywhere. And rather than just staying quiet, if we will just open our mouths and tell our stories of Christ at work in us, we will see the same Jesus of the Bible moving through us in the same way He moved when He walked around on earth. He will meet people right where they are. And talk to them in a way that they will understand.

That's why I can be the perfect candidate for Him to use to minister to this model.
I understand her world.
I am familiar with her lifestyle.
I get the struggles... I face them myself.
And mostly... I have a Savior named Jesus who longs for her to know Him intimately.

It doesn't take much to be used by God. Just like He meets us right where we are. He uses us right where we are too. All it takes is a willing heart.

So look around beloved... what aching heart near you could use a touch from the living God?

But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?” When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.” Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

Matthew 9:11-13 (NLT)

Like these little ones on the runway... we are all a little scared, but if we stick together we will be okay.