Have you been kicked today?

"Have you been kicked today?"

That is what I was asked by someone I had just met yesterday as we stood in a parking lot alongside Hixson Pike across from the Harvest Grocery.  It is a strange question to begin with and even stranger when it comes from someone you have just met.

I looked at my new friend Byron and told him no, fully expecting to be kicked in the next moment or two.  (I am known to kick folks gently while walking side by side with a side twist kick, something I started doing long before I ever took taekwondo.) He reached over, put his hand on my shoulder and started praying for me and my family.  Wow!  When he finished, he told me I had just been kicked.  Wow!

Byron "kicks" people all the time.  He kicked everyone of us, not leaving a single person out.

The entire time Byron was "kicking" all of us, I was thinking that we should be "kicking" him, praying for him.  He was the one out job hunting on this day.  He was seeking a solid job opportunity. Before we went our separate ways, we did get the opportunity to pray with and for Byron, but not before Byron had beat us to the punch, so to speak, and in a very creative way.

Let me ask you, have you been kicked today?

If not, this is for you:  Father God, be with my friend reading this today.  Meet them in the circumstances of life where they are, guide them, and provide for them.  Encourage them and fill them with peace and joy.  Amen.

Consider yourself kicked.

Blessings on your journey,

Debra