I like to see Oscar-nominated films before the big show, and so since time is of the essence, I planned to see “A Complete Unknown” today, solo. I spontaneously left a few minutes early to run into Costco to check the price of an item. This wasn’t a “Costco run” where my MINI was maxed, and it wasn’t even my regular Costco.
Shopping cart free and empty-handed, I was in and out in ten and began walking to my car when a tiny Asian woman sidled up next to me. I mention her ethnicity only because of her accent. To understand, I had to listen carefully. She came out of nowhere and made a beeline to me, with our steps in perfect sync.
She said Jesus loves me.
She said she loves Jesus.
Even with rapt attention, I got every third word or so…but I quickly got the gist that she was talking about Jesus. Only Jesus.
Jesus reveals, Jesus heals.
Jesus. Jesus. And more Jesus.
I wanted her to rest assured that I, too, love Jesus. I told her that I was a believer—am a believer—in not so many words that she was preaching to the choir.
Her brazen, unafraid, loving witness was humbling and inspiring…. In turn, it caused me to expose my own heart. I mean, why not?
I’m, admittedly, sputtering on fumes—okay, I’m desperate. These are troubling times. I thought, what can it hurt—and she seemed to exhibit this fiery, potentially effective faith with high speed connection. Maybe she was a courageous change agent, a full-on angel with “real” connections. At the very least, she was a badass who boldly talked to strangers in parking lots about controversial subjects. I told her my name (hers was Dana) and asked if she would remember me in prayer because my world had fallen apart the past few years and it Just. Keeps. Falling. She had that “tell me more,” look. I rattled off a few general/safe/vague prayer requests, although I did specifically mention the grief over the loss of my son, my mom, and my dad in excruciatingly, quick succession. Her eyes perk up, “You want to pray right now?”
“Um, okay.”
We’re in the middle of a busy parking lot, in the lane, and she takes my empty hand and begins to call down heaven with familiarity and authority. She put her hand on my heart as she prayed and then put her hand on top of my head. I could hear the cars moving around us, the rattling shopping carts going by.
We didn’t care.
Speaking in her broken English, this beautiful tiny stranger laid hands on broken me.
I’m guessing she prayed no less than fifteen minutes, and the stunner was this:
She said things she had no earthly way of knowing—specific, detailed things.
Apparently, I was completely known.
No wall too high, no chain too strong, she said.
I was gobsmacked.
Its like she saw into my life.
Now bawling in the parking lot, I thanked Dana and hugged her goodbye.
As I was walking away, she said, “It’s done. You have been renewed.”
She raised her eyebrows at me like, you know that, right?
I drive a couple blocks distance to the movie theatre. I sit in my car and voice record what had just happened into my iPhone and weep some more.
No longer empty handed.
Pardon the name drop, but in “A Complete Unknown,” I see Scoot McNairy playing Woody Guthrie in one of the early scenes. I always think of Joey when I see Scoot in a movie. He was a good, sweet friend to my son, and I love Scoot for it.
In another scene, Timothée Chalamet, as Bob Dylan, says to the audience as he’s leaving the stage, “These are troubling times; go find somebody to love.”
In a troubling time, Dana found someone to love, and it happened to be me.
Near the movie’s end, when Timothée as Bob sings, “These times, they are a changing,” I instantly thought of Dana telling me, It is done, you have been renewed: changed.
I don’t have a photo of Dana, but I do have this one I took today of my mountain bike and a wall.
