Divine Appointments

I want to start the day by thanking those of you who took time to pray for us yesterday. I received several emails, text messages, and facebook messages of encouragement. Encouragement is a powerful thing. To encourage someone literally means to "infuse" courage into another person. While our current storm is significant, even scary at times, I'm thankful for the prayers and infusion of courage from Godly friends that reminds us that we are not walking alone! God is good!

I also want to take a minute to thank the teachers, staff members, and parents who accompanied our Skipstone Academy middle schoolers to their Beach Bash in Gulf Shores the last couple of days. We had about 40 students and 20 adults participate. They arrived home safely last night and Shondi was in tears as she shared with me about the incredible things that God did in the lives of those who went. Please continue to pray for these precious young people as they come back with renewed commitments to love God, serve others, and hold each other accountable as they walk through the very difficult journey we call "junior high"!

As I have referenced several times in recent posts, the last several months have been some of the most challenging times I've ever experienced in ministry. I'm struggling more than ever to keep up with all of the responsibilities that I have and, more importantly, to keep my life balanced in a way that honors God. I'm completely overwhelmed with how much there is to do, and sometimes at the end of the day I don't feel like I've accomplished anything of significance.

On the flip side of the struggles, I've experienced some of the most intense, unexpected, and unusual ministry opportunities since my journey began. If you know me, you know that I'm far more task oriented than people oriented. I know that God knows this about me, yet I find myself more and more engaged in "people encounters" that are nothing short of divine appointments from God. All the while, my flesh is screaming reminders to me about how much I have to do and how this "person" or "thing" is standing in the way of my "to-do" list for the day!

One such encounter happened yesterday. After finally having "enough" of the office yesterday afternoon , I decided to get outside and tidy up around the new activity field. I spent a couple of hours picking up the evidence of how hot is has been while we've been laying 60,000+ sq. ft. of sod for the last week and half... two garbage bags full of empty Gatorade and water bottles!

As I loaded up the last of the garbage, my mind turned to a nice hot shower, a little bit of down time before the bus got home from the middle school trip, and maybe little more time in the office to wrap up the logo design for the football helmets. Before I could even finish mapping out "the plan" in my head, my phone rang. It was God's secretary, cleverly disguised as my neighbor, calling to set up a divine appointment with another neighbor. I know this now, but at the time I thought it was yet another "thing" pulling me away from what I had planned to do for the rest of the evening.

So instead of doing what I planned, I dropped everything and went to meet with my neighbor down the road. After a few minutes of small talk, it was as if God wiped the mud out of my eyes and I could see that this was far more than a neighborly chat.... this was another divine appointment!

For the next two hours, I sat across the table from a man who spent ten years in prison, yet looked on it favorably because he met Jesus there. He showed me his old worn out Bible, some of the pages barely readable because of all of the underlined passages and notes. This former hardened criminal, who was apathetic, even agnostic about the things of God prior to meeting Jesus, soaked a handkerchief with his tears as he shared his testimony of redemption and forgiveness. I've never seen anything like this... such brokenness over sin, such a sincere and evident transformation of a life. I saw come to life!

As I prayed with the dear saint and left his home, I thought about how insignificant my storms are in comparison to what this man's storms have been. Sure, many of his storms were consequences of blatant sin, but when you are in the midst of thundering dark cloud, does it really matter the cause? The solution is the same.... absolute trust in the only one able to walk you through it safely to the other side. Surrender, abandonment, death to self-sufficiency..... the only sure way to endure the storm.

I won't quickly forget yesterday's encounter. Etched in my heart are tears of joy from a modern day Paul, flowing down a man's face who has learned to praise God in the storms, even thanking God for a cold dark prison cell that became a sanctuary and a pulpit.

Talk about an infusion of courage!

Whatver It Takes,
Chip