They let their guards down...

There are days when I have a prompting in my heart to just go stand on my porch. I never know why until I go out there. Last Friday, I had that prompting. As I stood on my porch, I looked around and saw that there were about 20 young men standing in a big group. Most of them were the guys we feed lunch to on Wednesdays. I was reading some verses and when I looked up I saw all 20 of them walking towards me. I could tell something wasn't right so I asked them if everything thing was ok. One of them said, "Quinton just died and we need you to pray for us because we're trippin'" I asked them a few questions and found out that he died that morning in a horrible car crash. Quinton is one of the guys who comes on a regular basis for lunch on Wednesdays. As I looked at all of them standing on my porch, I was in shock, first of all that Quinton was dead and second of all that they had come to ask for prayer. I asked them if they all wanted to hold hands and pray. The young man who originally asked for prayer directed all of them to hold hands. One of the guys who I have known since he was about 13 years old, wanted to be right next to me for prayer, so he cut in and said, "I'm standing right here." Then another guy did the same thing with my other hand. They were letting their guards down. Many of them were carrying liters of alcohol that they had been drinking since they found out about their dear friend's death. As I began to pray for God's comfort and His LOVE, I heard some of them begin to cry. I have never seen any of these young men cry. I couldn't believe it. Not that I was glad they were crying, but I was honored that they would let their guards down that much with me. When we were done praying, half of them walked to another porch, but many of them stayed there with me. It was raining, but we all just continued to stand there. I didn't want to leave them, until they were ready to leave. Some of them were still crying and one was weeping. I walked up to the one who was weeping and just hugged him. He said, "I've got to quit crying. I'm being weak." I put my hand on his shoulder and firmly told him, "No, this is the best thing you can do right now. If you hold those tears in, they will eventually turn to anger later." He said, "Yeah, that's right on, that's right on. Ok." Other guys were crying and I just hugged them or put my hand on their shoulder to comfort them. As I did this I just prayed over them in my heart. I had to convince most of them that it was ok that they were crying. These guys are like my little brothers and I am so thankful that their Father God is slowly opening their hearts to me, so I am able to minister His LOVE to them.