When God Breaks In

I'll never forget a church I used to attend. There were alot of good things that happened there, but one funny thing stood out. As we were close to the interstate, and being this was the late 70's when CB's were still in vogue, sometimes during services, when the atmospheric conditions were just right, during the pastor's message, we could often catch a "good 'ole boy" trucker cackling over the church's sound system. Right at a reflective moment in the message, you might here, "Hey good buddy, I'm southbound and down." But sometimes we got some saltier versions of trucker lingo. Funny? Embarrassing? Annoying?

Sometimes we get annoyed when we get interrupted. Yet other times it's exciting when we're interrupted with something totally unscripted and out of the ordinary. Just a week or so ago that happened with me. I had attended two conferences, heard good speakers, and caught a challenging video all in the same week and was pondering how these things plugged in to my life. I was out mowing my yard when all at once God decided to break in. It has happened to me just a few times before in this way. It was if God had opened up my hard drive and was engaging me in a data dump.

Thoughts were flying into my mind and headed right to my heart. I felt my adrenaline flowing and my excitement growing. It started to get to be too much too quick. So I stopped mowing and headed into the house to write this stuff down so I wouldn't forget. I realized my memory is fading in my old age.

And in a short 30 minutes I looked at the several sheets of paper and was in awe of what I had written. It was a complete, clearly defined plan for a new ministry idea. Most of the things written there had never even been on my radar screen, and I realized I am not all that smart anyway, so I was convinced God must have spoken.

I now have begun the process of sharing that idea with others who I trust and know will pray about it. Like any idea that we think is God-breathed, we need to seek wise counsel, pray about it, and move forward in faith as the doors open. Failure to do so may cause us to do two things, both with bad results.

First, we may go off half-cocked and pursue the idea on our own without having key people on board. Or, if we keep the idea to ourselves, we may bog down and even quit when we get discouraged when we come upon a detour. I am convinced vision is to be shared for it to come to it's full fruition.

What's ahead? I'm not sure. But the enthusiasm of knowing we are about to embark on a trip we hadn't really planned makes me smile as I thank God for breaking into my world and using me this way. Life is good. And that's a big 10-4!