Those God things!

God has a way of showing up in the most interesting places in our lives. At times when we think people and events just "seem" to happen as they do, we look back from a perspective of a few days and discover that "He was there all the time."

I have experienced one of those God things these last few days. I was in a meeting last week in another state. I came into a meeting and sat, at random I thought, in a seat that was unoccupied, beside a person I did not recognize. After the meeting I spoke to this woman and introduced myself and we both realized that we had a common experience from our pasts. Her husband had died from cancer 11 months before. My wife had died from cancer 22 months before. We corresponded over the months, keeping in touch just to encourage each other.

We arranged to meet for breakfast in a couple of days. We spent some time just sharing stories of our experiences and then, on a whim, I said, "Would you like to go do something?" She said, "Yes," and we took the next several hours to visit the grave of her daughter who had died three years before and the grave of her husband who had died just last year. The day was a time of refreshing for both of us and we have continued to say in touch by email and phone since I returned home. I don't know what the future holds for us, but if God continues doing His thing in our lives, I wouldn't be surprised if He didn't just work a miracle for us both. I certainly hope so.

What Do I Do Now?

I have probably asked myself that question a hundred times over the last 22 months. It was 22 months ago that my wife slipped out into eternity to meet the Lord whom she loved supremely. I have encountered many situations that would have been easy to handle ... if she were with me ... but she wasn't. So I was forced to ask, "What do I do now?" On one occasion I was seated at a restaurant with three people from my church. All four of us were single. The lady who had created this foursome had made it a regular practice to take my wife and me out to eat on our birthdays and she wanted to continue this practice. A waitress came by our table who knew me but did not know that my wife had died. She asked me if the lady seated beside me was the one who let me buy the pda/phone that I had. {She always admired the phone when I came in.} I said "no" and she went on with her work. After the others left, I went back to talk to the waitress and explained to her that my wife had died and that the people with me were all from my church and had taken me out to eat for my birthday. I explained to her that I wanted to be very careful so people would not think wrongly about me.

A few weeks ago our church hosted a single lady missionary and it is my custom to take missionaries to get something to eat if they would like to. "What do I do now?" ran through my mind since I didn't feel comfortable taking this person out to eat alone. I asked a husband and wife to go with us and they were glad to get to spend some time with the missionary and with the pastor.

These scenarios occur over and over in the life of a pastor who is single/widowed. God knows what He is about and I trust Him. I pray that one day He will allow me not to have to ask the question "What do I do now?" - but then that decision is in His hands.