Kingdom Success

Written by Shianne Aaron

       I have currently been a member of the Uncommon Grounds staff for about a year and a half now. In that time, I have learned about spirituality, honesty, faith, identity and many more notions. Most importantly though, I’ve learned to pray and have come to find God. Praying was not an easy concept for me at first and, honestly, still isn’t to an extent. I thought I would never be able to pray right or even learn how to pray the right way. The team at Uncommon Grounds has taught me that there is no right or wrong way to pray, just as long as I do it. I still find myself thinking that I’m not praying right since I can’t focus and that God doesn’t speak to me. The reality of it is that God just doesn't speak to me in the way I want him to, but in the way He wants to.

     This concept occurred to me recently when I was in a situation in downtown Pittsburgh. I was eating dinner at a restaurant and had went outside to get some air to get away from everybody in the crowded restaurant. While I was standing outside, I noticed an older looking man approaching the groups of people that were also standing outside. I had overheard him asking them they had anything they could spare. Now, at this moment, I got really nervous because I knew he was going to come up tp me next and ask me the same thing. It wasn’t the fact that he was probably going to ask for something, it was more-so my anxiety kicking in and having this really weird feeling come over me. At the time, I couldn’t explain what was coming over me. But when he did come up to me and asked if I had anything to spare, I hesitated for a second. Then I said “No, I don’t have any cash on me but what I can do is pray for you if you want me to”.
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       I then proceeded to pray for the man, as he held out his hands and I grabbed them. I can’t remember what all I said but what I do know, was that it was words from God coming out of my mouth. Never before this moment have i prayed for a stranger out loud and for as nervous as I was, I knew right after that it was God speaking through me in that moment. Then a couple minutes later, after the gentleman had left, I also came to find out that it was God who was trying to speak to me before the man even came up to me, hence to why I had such a veil of a weird feelings come over me. That is when I it hit me. God speaks to me the way he wants to; in the ways that I need spoken too.
I’m still not all the way comfortable with praying for other people out loud yet but it will get there in time. I’m accepting of that and won’t let myself give up. I know that just for today, God uses me as a vessel to be able to speak to people and minister for them to the best of my ability. Uncommon Grounds has taught me that and to not sell myself short of any of the abilities God has given me.