I go through many days just trying to scratch off items on my DO IT NOW list. If I'm lucky, I get of few others tasks done. I blunder through so many days unconscious of God. I feel like an ordinary person living an ordinary day with no significant meaning.
Last week something different happened.
I and my hubby were in New York, first Long Island and then near Albany, on a mission to see our two kids. After enjoying the delights of being with them, we drove out into the hilly countryside of upstate NY, spectacular with fall foliage and lakes, then on to the stupendous Niagra Falls. Two days of fun, just thinking of ourselves and whether we wanted Italian food or steaks for dinner, to read or to walk or talk.
By the third day, I wanted to feel useful, not just caring for myself, but all that awaited me was a plane ride home. The only "fun" to be had was waiting in airport lobbies, with seats tilted backwards and giving me a backache, and period announcements that are hard to understand and interrupt my concentration.
Yet that morning, in my prayer time, I prayed boldly: "God, teach my your ways today. Surprise me with way to help someone in need."
The first flight to Chicago and our three-hour layover were predictable, boring.
When I tried to talk to the woman seated next to me, she answered my get-to-know you questions pointedly brief and refrained from asking me even the simplest question. She soon closed her eyes--a clear signal.
The second flight brought a different story. I shoved my luggage in the compartment over head and discovered that the very slim young woman that I'd noted in the lobby sat in the window seat. I sat down next to her and greeted her.
She smiled with warmth. She was happy to answer my questions. Her home was not in Chicago, nor was she flying home. Rather, she travlled to a relative's funeral in the SF area.
I asked her if her uncle had died at the end of a long illness or more unexpectedly. The latter. "Ahh. I'd like to pray for you and your family."
Her big eyes got big in delight. "Would you?"
I nodded. "I can imagine lots to pray for, but do you have any specific things you'd like to tell me?"
She did indeed and she opened her heart to me. She's a follower of Jesus and she'd be interacting with needy family members who were not. I prayed. She told me that she had prayed about who she'd be sitting with and I was a blessing. She was the same for me. We chuckled.
What if I asked for, looked for, God's surprises every day? What if I believed he has important things for me to say or do each day and tried to find them--followed an impulse to call someone or greet someone I don't know?
Ordinary days could become extra-ordinary ones.
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