by Dale Reeves

Story Pastor

 

This week we launched our fall session of Man Church, which will meet five nights over the next few months. We are walking through a video study together called “This Is the Day” featuring Heisman-Trophy-winning quarterback Tim Tebow. If you’re a man, and want to join us, it’s not too late. You can register at the link here. It’s an amazing night in which we play some cornhole, eat, and then study together around twelve round tables in our church gym. We were over 75 men strong this week. Plan on joining us on September 17 in the gym, for food at 5:30 pm, followed by our session from 6:30-8:00 pm.

This past Tuesday, Tim Tebow talked about the opportunities that God presents to each of us every week, sometimes every day, in which we can choose to obey him—and in the process, serve other people. Or, we can choose to walk away from the opportunities and miss out on the blessings God wants to send to others through us as his hands and feet. We often miss these opportunities because of several reasons mentioned at my table the other night: we’re distracted, we’re too busy with our own agendas, we think we’re in control, we’re more focused on what we want to do. Ultimately, we’re not asking God what he would want us to do.

 

Then, we were reminded of what James writes in God’s Word,

“Look here, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.’ How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, ‘If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.’ Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil. Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it” (James 4:13-17, NLT).

 

Honestly, there are days when I wake up in the morning and ask God, “Father, would you send an opportunity my way today in which I can help someone, show some kindness, and make you smile by my obedient response to your promptings?” I call these “Divine Disruptions” or “God Nudges.” Then, when God answers that prayer, I have the choice to follow through in obedience or to ignore the promptings and go about my day. Other days, I have to admit that I’m too busy to stop and pray this prayer, I don’t have enough margin in my life to respond to opportunities God sends my way, and I forget that I am not in control—he is!

 

What about you? What kind of God nudges have you felt in your life recently? Did you respond obediently to God? If so, what happened? Or did you choose to ignore his nudges and in so doing, missed out on what he had for you that day?

 

A Few Touches of Grace

Several weeks ago, during a communion meditation, I shared one of the “God Nudges” I experienced while I was vacationing with family in Florida this summer. After I was pulled over by a policeman for failing to stop at a pedestrian crossing, he gave me a warning, and after I thanked him for his “act of grace,” I felt God nudging me to thank him and then pray for him, which I did on the side of the road. When we returned to our condo where we were staying for a few weeks, one of my daughters zinged me with a question that went straight to the heart—“Dad, would you have still prayed for the officer if he had actually given you a ticket?” The honest answer is NO.

 

Then, just a few weeks after that I had another encounter with a police officer. This time, it was in downtown Cincinnati, at the Reds’ stadium, Great American Ball Park. We had attended a game on Friday night, followed by a concert and fireworks. When we got up to go home after 11:00 pm, I realized that my wallet was not in my back pocket. After searching several areas where I thought I might have lost it, I started thinking about all the calls I would have to make, canceling credit cards, getting a new driver’s license, etc. By then, the ushers were trying to move people out of the stadium. A police officer showed up and asked if he could help. After explaining what had happened, he walked with me to the section where we had been sitting, and the wallet was still not there. My wife Karen said, “Why don’t you look around in that section one more time?” The officer asked me what color my wallet was, and then he saw it several rows in front of where we had been sitting. It must have fallen out of my pocket in the aisle, and someone picked it up and placed it on a chair a few rows in front of us. Again, I felt that familiar nudge, as my wife was waiting for me to climb the stadium stairs and exit. After asking the police officer his name and thanking him for finding my wallet, I said to him, “You are the second police officer I’ve prayed for this last month. Thank you so much for what you do on a daily basis!”

 

A Missed Opportunity

Those are fun stories to relate, but this blog would not be complete without telling you about a God Nudge in which I missed an opportunity. Just last Saturday, as we were about to enjoy the coming Labor Day weekend, I headed to Krispy Kreme Doughnuts early that morning. A number of college football games were kicking off that day, and we were hosting our family’s fantasy football draft that evening in our home, so I thought we needed the “Dr. Pepper Kickoff Collection.” As I entered Krispy Kreme with a discounted coupon on my phone, I took my place in a fairly long line. As people kept entering the store to get their pickup orders, one lone worker was doing all the hustling of getting doughnuts and receiving payments, while others were in the back making the doughnuts. I wondered if there were a couple of no-shows who might have stayed too late at Friday football games the night before. Even folks who had been in the drive-thru line were coming inside because the drive-thru was slower than usual.

 

After about fifteen minutes of waiting, a lady got in line behind me, and she seemed frustrated with the wait time. About five minutes later, when I finally got to the register, the woman behind me said, “I don’t have time. I have to get to work.” And as I saw her go through the exit door, the Holy Spirit whispered to me, “You big dummy, you missed it. All you had to say to her was, ‘Ma’am, would you like to go ahead of me? What difference would a couple more minutes of waiting have mattered?” I didn’t get out of line and go tell her that. I missed it.

 

Some people might call them coincidences, I prefer to call them God Nudges! I’m convinced that God sends these opportunities our way all the time. But we have to be walking with him, and be in tune with him, to hear his voice. Can I challenge you today to not be so absorbed by all the competing voices yelling for your attention in this world that you miss the most important voice from the One who longs to speak into your life and walk with you? Look for his nudges, his whisperings, they are happening all the time!

 

“The Lord said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.’ Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’” (1 Kings 19:11-13, NIV).

 

I’m hoping you’ll hear God’s gentle whisper today.