God Met Me in Walmart.

If anyone struggles with depression and anxiety, it definitely is not a joke. I can laugh and say “I am depressed”, but in reality it is actually me screaming from the inside out that I feel so alone and confused. For a really long time, I have been stuck in a very dry and draining season of my life. It feels like I am drinking salt water without knowing it. My soul desires for living water, but it keeps getting deceived by salt water.

At 20 years old, I have never felt more like a sojourner then right now. This in-between season of life is so hard. You have graduated the teenage phase, moved on from high school, and your parents’ house, but you do not have a career, full time job with a steady income, or a place to call your own. You feel stuck. You feel like every decision you make is the wrong one. This has been me for a while. When you are isolated like this, the devil makes his move. He enters your mind to kill, steal, and destroy your every good thought about life. He wants to show you how awful your life is when in reality, you are doing just fine. This is how he works.

So for me, I have been struggling with my career choice, isolation, and disappointment…among other things. Am I doing the right thing by becoming a teacher? Is this really my calling? Why am I feeling this way? Everyone else has quit…maybe I should too.

With these thoughts in my head, I entered the local Walmart searching for bins to create a side table for my apartment room. It was just a normal afternoon with my Momma, and I was eager to get in an out because I was not having a good day mentally or emotionally. As we pulled up our Pinterest photo to measure and to evaluate the bins, a young black woman who worked there walked past us and then back tracked to where we were standing in the isle. She said, “What are you doing with those?” I told her that I was attempting to create a side table with the bins, but I was uncertain if I needed 2 or 3. She said, “What a great idea! That is so smart. You can store so many things.” She then asked me, “Where do you go to school?” I told her I go to Winthrop up in Rock Hill, SC. Now this is where it gets serious. This woman looked me in the eyes and said, “You are a teacher. I just know it. You have the personality.” This woman knew me before I even spoke a word about my major. She could see my purpose that was created by God more clearly than I could. We then spent a solid 5-7 minutes talking with her about her daughter who was entering the 2nd grade. She mentioned that her daughter was struggling with vocabulary and spelling words on her level and that her daughter’s teacher helped her with her vocabulary and still checks in with her to this day. She told me that this is the type of teacher to be. She wished me well and told me to work hard even through the hard times.

So, like I said, God met me in Walmart, and He used a young woman to do it. He showed me that He knows me. He knows what He has in store for me even when I cannot see it or I am confused by it. He encouraged me to keep going. This is the God who loves broken sinners. This is the God we serve and stand firm in. This is the God that meets you where you are and speaks truth into your life.

So are you listening? Are you watching? Are you paying attention? Don’t be in such a rush that you miss out on talking to the worker at Walmart or your waiter or waitress. Wherever you are, God is trying to speak to you. Open your eyes, ears, and heart, because your Father is desperately trying to reach you.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

-Savanna Young