God's leading

God's leading...I love it.

Here's what I know - God's leading does not have to some kind of "out of body experience", where we go into some kind of trance like state.

God normally leads us every day of our lives, in ways that many times can escape us.

What I want to say is this: Let's all be open to God leading us on an every day, every hour, every minute basis.

My friend Dave Gable writes this:

"Pastor, could I talk to you for a minute?"

Her voice was low; she wasn't sure of herself. She looked to be in her early 20s, a girl I'd never seen at our church before.

It was my first year as senior pastor at Full Gospel Tabernacle in downtown Fresno, California. I was greeting people after the Wednesday night Bible study.

"What can I do for you?"

"Would you please talk with my husband? He moved out from our home and into an apartment with two women. I don't know what to do."

"Is he a Christian?"

"He's the one who led me to a relationship with Christ."

"I'll be glad to talk with him. How can I get in touch with him?"

"That's the problem. I can't reach him. If he wants to talk, he calls me."

There was little I could do. I asked her to have him call me if he talked with her again.

I remember the look of despair in her eyes as she walked away.

Friday was my day off. I got up early. We were landscaping our front yard, and I wanted it finished. By late morning the end was in sight. It was hot. I was muddy, aching, and thoroughly tired of the whole project. To add to my woes, I ran out of ornamental plants. I drove to the store for more.

The first store had the right kind, but the price had gone up. A store a mile down the road had them, and the price was right. I loaded my cart and headed to the checkout.

As I waited in line, I glanced at the cashier's name tag. It looked familiar.

As he began to ring up the plants, I motioned to his name tag.

"Is that your name?" (Dumb question, but I wanted to be sure.)

He looked at me blankly, going on full "village idiot" alert. "Yes."

"Are you married to ________?" and I named the woman who had talked with me on Wednesday night.

He looked wary. "Yes?"

I drew myself up to my full 6 feet 5 inches—unshaven, messy, sweaty, and muddy. I gave him my happiest smile.

"God has sent me here to talk to you about your marriage."

Some 300,000 people lived in the Fresno area then. Out of all of them, the first person I had talked to—other than family and staff—since Wednesday night was this husband."

Dave concludes by saying:

"In a lifetime of seeking to be led by the Lord, that is the most powerful example I have experienced. I had heard many stories of people led by the Spirit to go to unusual places or to say unusual things. I always wondered what that would be like. At times I've really needed guidance and have prayed earnestly for it. God has helped me. But my unerring, no-wasted-step trip to that husband remains my most remarkable example. Not only was I not trying to be led, I wasn't conscious of God's leading. I just wanted the yard finished."

May that be an example to us today.