How busy are you each day? I know how many of you — and maybe most of you — will answer that question. So many things to do. So many places to be. So many people to meet. It tires you out just to think about it.
KirklandSo, let me ask you this: Does your perhaps overloaded agenda for the day include any time for interruptions that get you off schedule and make a mess of your plans? And how do you respond to those unexpected situations? Oh, sorry I asked.
By any chance, have you written on your calendar: “Be sure to keep any divine appointments that might occur today”? Divine appointments? Yes. Divine appointments are meetings arranged by God. They may come to you and me every day, but we miss them because we’re not looking for them and we are preoccupied with so many other things.
I still remember clearly a divine appointment that came to me 16 years ago. Memory of it hasn’t faded one bit.
It was 7:30 in the morning and I was about to veer off I-85 toward my office in Greenville. That’s when I noticed her. She was thin and walked with weary steps. She wore jeans and a sweatshirt. What belongings she had were stuffed in a small canvas bag slung over her shoulder.
I had left home early that morning due to pressing business at the Courier. I didn’t need this interruption. Not this day. And I was wary of picking up strangers. Still, I stopped. I would have to put my work on hold at least for a while.
She was headed for Atlanta. In a tired voice, she said she hoped to “hit bottom” on crack cocaine. I told her I couldn’t drive her to Atlanta, but I would get her a little closer down I-85.
Her story began to spill out. She had dropped out of high school, but earned a GED. She had worked as a waitress. She said she had a drinking problem. Worse, she had been living with an uncle who was a recovering alcoholic. She had a young child, who lived with a relative in Tennessee. Was she divorced, or had she even been married? She didn’t say and I didn’t ask.
She had grown up in the church. She called herself a “believer,” but was angry with God. She was “tired of being up and down.”
To that point, I had said nothing about my own faith. Yet, in our conversation she began to refer to me as a Christian.
I realized I had to get to work. I exited I-85 at a McDonald’s. “Let me buy you some breakfast.” It was nearly 8:30, time to be at my desk. I told her I had to run, but handed her money for food.
Just before closing the car door, she leaned inside and said, “You know something, you’re the first Christian I’ve ever talked to who didn’t try to tell me what to do.”
I laughed and told her, “That’s because I don’t always know what to do in every case, but I do want to help you.”
“You have,” she replied. “I have felt God’s love through you.”
She disappeared into the restaurant and I returned to Greenville, late for work.
Later in the day, I began to feel spiritually smug about my actions that morning. What a Good Samaritan I was. That feeling didn’t last for long. God jolted me out of my state of self-congratulations with this reality: Over the years, my Lord made clear to me, many more opportunities to minister for Christ’s sake had appeared right in front of my eyes, but I failed to see them as opportunities for service. They were disguised as interruptions, as inconveniences. And so, I ignored them.
I tried to salve my conscience by reminding myself that I had business to tend to. That was true. But whose business is the most important?
What happened to that young woman? I wish I knew. I do know that God loves her and I’m sure he arranged more divine appointments on her behalf. I’m just grateful that I kept mine with her on that morning years ago.
God’s appointments. His arranged meetings for us, whether to bless or to be blessed. Don’t miss them.