God Smirked

Do you remember the old saying, "
If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans"? 

Well, all day I have heard God chortling.   

Today my schedule was packed, from early morning to late at night. 

That was my plan.  

At 10:15 am this morning, I was scheduled to speak in chapel at a local Christian school.  I love speaking in chapel and work hard to have something fresh for them to push around in their brains.  So this morning I put my Bible on the kitchen counter with my "handout notes" for the teens and..... walked out the door. 

I got to the school -- right on time.  I am motivated because the teens are excited to hear God's Word and how it applies to their life.  This is part of the job that I am passionate about and work hard invest my very best.   

Except this time, when I got up to speak, I didn't even have my Bible -- or my cool handouts for them.  I forgot them on the kitchen counter at home.  A pastor getting up to speak without his Bible.  This chapel hour didn't hold a lot of promise for me or the teens. 

So as I'm standing in the back of the chapel trying to decide if I remember enough of my notes to "wing-it", the high school teens performed a quick drama skit.  The skit was how teens should handle dealing with a homeless person that was hungry.  I thought the teens were passionate and clever in their presentation. 

I began praying, "Lord, the skit is about over and You haven't nudged me in any direction on what YOUR MESSAGE is for these teens.  Anytime now would be fantastic. Amen." 

The teens completed their skit and introduced me.  And to make it worse, everyone starting applauding.  Oh good grief.  No pressure. 

God reminded me of the Christian Writer's Conference I attended in Spokane last week.  At the conference I met a remarkable pastor from Nigeria.  He flew all the way from Nigeria to Spokane to attend a 2 day writers conference.  So I shared with the teens, the remarkable work that God did -- putting the pastor from Nigeria and me together in the same room -- sitting next to each other.  The teens seemed ok with this story but they were not exactly on the edge of their seats. 

So I grabbed a pew Bible and opened it to Luke 10:29-37 and shared the story of the good Samaritan.  God seemed to be moving the service toward taking care of people in need so I simply followed the good Lord's lead. The good Samaritan story they responded passionately to. 

God loves blessing His Word. 

My point is this: 

"My grace is sufficient for you,

for My strength is made perfect in weakness." 
Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities,
that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 
Therefore, I take pleasure in my infirmities,
in reproaches, in distresses, for Christ's sake. 
For when I am weak, then I am strong.   
2 Corinthians 12:9-10

Today, I took a leap of faith. 

My head told me that I was destined for failure. 

My heart told me that God had a plan and was working everything out for His glory. 

So at some point, I accepted the fact that if it was God's will for me to stumble and fail -- as long as that would accomplish His plan -- then I was on-board with His plan. 

However, God's plan was for me to step aside and table my personal insights and opinions of the good Samaritan story and allow His Message to flow through me unobstructed. 

It truly was a remarkable experience. 

Thank you Lord for taking my weakness

and accomplishing Your Purpose with power.