Tuesday, January 6, 2009
How Did That Happen?

Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season;
reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
2 Timothy 4:2 KJV

Today I flew from Nashville to Orlando. A friend who prays for me constantly told me she had prayed that God would use me to minister to whomever I sat with on the plane. It happened before I ever stepped foot on the plane! Just before boarding my Southwest cattle-car flight, a woman timidly asked me for help. It was obvious she had not flown much and that she was afraid…she had driven through blinding rain from Kentucky to get to the airport and almost turned around and went home. It was obvious the Lord had prepared her heart to sit near me...because we wound up sitting directly across the aisle from one another at the back of the plane. The turbulence was terrible for almost 30 minutes and she was visibly shaken…so I just talked to her. She had lived such a hard life…and of course she got around to asking me about myself. I told her of my deliverance and salvation…and she said, “How’d that happen?” And I got to tell her! She followed me all the way to baggage claim and seemed very reassured. Gave her a Kingdom Come CD and quietly asked the Lord to grow the seed that had been planted.

I thought to myself that my praying friend’s prayers had been answered…but I was only partially correct in that assumption. As I signed for my rental car, the clerk asked me why I was in town. When I told her, she asked me how I got started in Christian music…so I told her about my salvation and deliverance. Her first question? “How did that happen?” As I did with the first encounter, I simply told her that I trusted the love of God so much because He loved me right where I was…but loved me enough to not leave me there. I also gave her a couple of CDs and quietly asked the Lord to grow the seed that had been planted in her – and in the young man she was training who witnessed the entire exchange. I am glad I always feel prepared to tell people ‘how that happened’!