No Longer the Bearded Chicken ~ Jason Norton

Background: Jason Norton is the pastor of King’s Trail Cowboy Church, a large church in Whitewright, Texas. Jason just received Julie’s book No More No last week and chose to plunge in and say “yes” to God no matter how scared he feels. He immediately shared several stories (2 of them are in CAYM’s July newsletter). Here is another. He jokingly told us to title it “The Bearded Chicken,” but we changed it a little:

(By Jason Norton) 

My goodness…

Almost ran out of gas….”Keep going, keep going” is what I kept sensing in my thoughts. I then exited and was going to go to a gas station I’ve been to before, but I had the prompting, “Nope, go to this one here.” As I pulled in I saw a picture in my mind’s eye of a woman that I needed to pray for. The gas station was busy and I was afraid of doing this type of thing in front of people, so I prayed, “Lord Jesus, give me courage!”

I went inside and saw a man behind the counter and was relieved. Woohoo, I must have heard incorrectly, I thought. When I took a snack up to the counter, it wouldn’t scan correctly, so the guy hollered out, calling the manager’s name, “Can you come help me?”

As she walked out, I thought, Oh, no. That’s her. She took a second look at me, helped the guy scan my item, and then walked back to her office. Instead of talking to her, I chickened out and went back out to my truck and began eating my snack. I was trying to leave, but the burden was really heavy for her. I was praying, “Lord, why is this so hard? Help me please! Have her come outside or something!” I was basically whining, and nothing happened.

God gave me the courage to get out of the truck and walk back into the gas station. I walked over to her office and knocked on the door jamb and peered inside. “Miss, I have a question.”

“Ok, come on in,” she said. I then described everything that had been going on with me, and told her I was sorry for not praying for her. She stood up, walked over to me, grabbed my hands and began telling me why God had sent me there. She was a brand new manager there because that gas station was having  a lot of problems and the owners brought her in to turn things around. It was a frustrating situation for her.

She eagerly agreed to let me pray with her. I prayed for her and for the gas station, asking God to help her emotionally and to give her favor, success and protection. When I was done praying, she gave me a big ol’ hug and said, “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you so much! Everything is going to be okay now. I just know it!”

I walked out so excited for what God had done.

Wow! What have I done all my life? How powerful is God!

[July 21, 2015]