second sight

Strange and unexpected things are happening all the time!

The key is to learn to interpret them all aright and try and suss out what on earth is going on. What God is doing or saying through them all.

I had my morning planned out - at least in my mind. But the best laid plans ...

A guy came to the door. This was Jimmy. Not that I'd met or seen the guy before. But I think that was his name since he had that name tattooed on his forearm - and he seemed to answer to that when I called him it later on.

He was from Geordie-land, as his accent clearly betrayed.

No, he wasn't looking for money. Which is most times the opening line. Mabe they know we don't really hold any money here on the premises.

'But...'

And, yes, there's usually a 'but' of some sort.

He'd been up here for some two or three years and now he was out of work. And out of gas as well. Would I give him not money to hand, but a top up on his gas meter card?

So I walked him round to the local post office. That's where you get these top-ups. And I then used my bit of plastic there to transfer some credit to his bit of plastic.

At least he'll be able (I hope) to get some warmth and cook his food (or the food that he gets from some where else).

It's never that easy knowing quite how to handle such folk. I don't like to be entirely naive and become just a soft touch who's easily taken for a ride. But on the other hand I don't want to show a hard, unfeeling approach which is at odds with all that Jesus is about.

So I don't do money, by and large, in circumstances of this sort. Food, yes. And now, I can see, there's more and more of this plastic-to-plastic scenario. And somehow through it all I'm wanting the guy to catch a sense of the presence and love of the Lord.

I was out later on seeing a man from the fellowship here who was involved in an accident this morning.

He's been out of work for a while and this morning he'd been on his way to a training course which he saw as being so very much the provision of God at this time.

Normally it costs thousands to go on this course, but he was getting on for free. Amazing!

But on his way, as he drove along, a woman had stepped right out in front of the car. She'd injured herself, and of course simply stopped him in his tracks.

Literally and metaphorically.

He was shaken up really badly. And understandably too.

(The woman was that embarassed she'd insisted the ambulance simply take her home and not to the hospital - she said she'd go to the doctor tomorrow, so presumably it wasn't that bad. There was a witness, too, who told the police what had happened and how he hadn't had a chance to avoid the woman at all).

When I heard what had happened the first thing I thought was how similar it was to what I'd been telling the children the previous day.

About the couple in Africa who set out on their way to follow the call of God and start in a new sphere of work: and they'd hardly gone any distance at all before they were hit by a goat which stopped the car (and them) in its tracks.

It seemed to me like this was some 'goat' of a woman who'd stepped out today and stopped this guy in his tracks. And that suggested to me that this was bound up with the fact that God was at work in his life and opening up at last a new sphere of work for this man.

It was good to see him and his wife later on and have time with them.

Not what I'd planned. But then, it wasn't what they had planned either.

It's how we handle the ups and downs and all the unexpecteds in our lives which is the crucial thing.

And then another unexpected thing. The undertaker rang.

Well, that's not that unexpected, I suppose. They quite often do!

In a roundabout sort of way I had a connection with the grandson of the man who'd died. And the son of the man who'd died was in touch to say how thrilled he was that I was able to conduct the service later on this week.

It seems the man who'd died had come to faith just a very short time before he'd finally died, as his son had sat and prayed with him.

So they want the hymn 'Amazing grace' - and I can well see why! It should be quite a service.

But again, I'm seeing the wonderful ways the Lord just makes these connections. Threads that stretch back many years which he's carefully set in place for a moment such as this.

Or threads like the contact with Jimmy today which who knows when or where may get woven by God into a whole new life for him.

That's what I mean about seeing what's going on. Behind the scenes, as it were. Behind what meets the eye.

I often think of the way that Jesus said 'My Father is always working' - because that's so profoundly true. Always at work, doing some amazing things.

And what Jesus went on to say is absolutely vital for the sort of life he lived. He made it clear he could (or would) only do what he saw his Father doing.

That's how I try to live. Trying to see what this amazing God is doing in the multitude of different sets of circumstances going on. And then tagging along and doing my bit with him.

It makes for an exciting, absorbing sort of life!