Man on the Marta

It’s funny how often God uses perfect strangers to speak truth into my life. When the words of those I know well fall flat and when the Scriptures seem like a foreign language, God sends an unsuspecting stranger. Tonight I met a man named Marcelles (pronounced: Mar-Sell-less). My sister and brother-in-law had dropped me off at the Marta station in Atlanta. I boarded, found an empty seat, inserted my Ipod earplugs and opened my Bible, staring at it more than reading it. I’ve had a rough go. I’ve found it very difficult to shake off the last two years. I had been feeling pretty discouraged about my life and as I sat there all those things weighed on my mind. I could tell that Marcelles was watching me and then he leaned in to get my attention. He asked me what I was reading and for the next 10 minutes he just talked and I listened. He told me about how he had been discouraged lately and how God had sent him to 1 John 4:16, “And we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. God is love and the one who remains in love remains in God and God remains in him.”
He said that things can be tough, but that God is the God of all comfort and we cannot lose hope. We must put Christ first and do not give up. He kept repeating that phrase, “Do not give up!” He said that he just hoped that God has used him to encourage me and then he exited the train when it stopped.
It is one of those moments that you don’t tell anyone (or really even blog about) because you cannot do it justice. I just keep replaying it in my head…how I was feeling, what I was thinking, the things he was saying, the perfection of it all. God speaks to us. Even when we think He is nowhere to be found, He speaks; sometimes through a strange man on a Marta train.