This morning I took a copy of Oswald Chambers’ “My Utmost for His Highest” with me to church, which I never do. As I left for church I simply felt the urge to tuck it into the side pocket of my purse. Later, as I walked through the hallway, someone approached me and we talked a few minutes about his continued growth of his personal relationship with Christ…something that …he and I have talked about several times in the past over meals with our spouses. I shared something with him from MUFHH’s devotional this week and asked if he was familiar with this devotional/author. He was not. “There. That’s the reason….”, I felt the Spirit say. I took the copy out of my bag and handed it to him, inviting him to journey with Oswald, as many of us do. It was a natural, easy thing to do as I had recommended another book to him months ago when he asked for some resources. He said he had found it helpful. What a sweet moment of connection in a 5 minute conversation in the hallway…..a blessing to me to share something and someone whose journey with Christ has been helpful in my journey. In this moment I had the opportunity to hand off that blessing to another pilgrim.
Then I went to Sunday School and as we talked I commented that I had just handed off a copy of MUFHH to someone in the hall when a member of the class chimed in, “I brought you another one today.” It was in a box of books that she brought for our ministry at Titus 2. My own ministry, I realized, is not just to ladies at Titus 2, or to the Sunday School class I teach. It’s to people in the hallway, through brief side conversations and in telephone calls, in God moments where I share something God has given me to offer when someone asks……
“I will bring them to you.” That is what God told me in 1997 as I began to realize that He was inviting me into ministry to be used by Him- with my personal testimony, with what He would show me by the power of the Holy Spirit as I study Scripture, and with my experiences in life to teach others. He is doing that all the time. All I have to do is go out each day, engage in life and carry this awareness with me…that He is present and leading them to me and me to them. Divine appointments….there are no coincidences. But not only for me or others in ministry….for all of us.