God's Timing

I am ever amazed at God's timing. I know that He's perfect and awesome and ever-present, but somehow He still surprises me in the way He sets things up. For example, we were doing outreach downtown on Saturday. Our plan was to visit some of the people in our neighborhood and hand out cold drinks and chocolate bars. Nothing earth-shattering; just saying hey and reminding folks that God loves them. Pastor Johnny walks up to a guy to give him an ice tea and finds out that the dude is trying to cut his grass with a weed-whacker because somebody had stolen his lawnmower. Pastor Johnny just happens to have a lawnmower in the back of his jeep so he cuts the guy's lawn for him. Maybe not a big deal to some, but to the man with only a weed-whacker it's huge. Reach the world by serving one. God's timing.
Another example: as we're walking down the street a guy wanders out of a building in his sock feet to have a smoke. We walk up with our kit-kats and visit with him for a while. When asked if he needs prayer he tells us about his son being killed, a lawsuit he's in and a painful back injury he's dealing with. One of the volunteers tells his son to pray for the man, so the eleven-year-old hands me his chocolate bars so he can lay hands on the man. Afterwards the gentleman thanked us for our prayers and told us we were doing a good thing. He came out for a smoke and got touched by God. Again, God's timing.
After covering three streets we only had a few things left so we went to The Alamo. For anyone who doesn't know, The Alamo is a by-the-hour motel that's located on a rough strip of Florida Blvd. We go there pretty frequently so the regulars know us a little bit. They don't always stop dealing drugs or pimping girls when we roll up, but at least they don't shoot at us. Pastor Alliece always blows the horn several times to let the people know to come out and get some free stuff. This time when we showed up, the commotion scared off a man who was attempting to attack a young woman. He had already gotten through her door and had started tearing her clothes off when the trucks showed up and sea of red shirts swarmed the area. He didn't know what was happening so he got up and ran off. The woman told one of our volunteers what had happened; and thanked us profusely for saving her. Once again, God's timing.
There was no way we could have planned any of the events that took place on outreach. All we did was show up. We spoke to dozens of families, handed out hundreds of items and prayed for countless people; all because we showed up. I am so grateful that I don't have to figure out the plan or the timing for anything. Every time that I am willing to stand aside and let God move, He shows up and shows off. And if I show up, I get to see miracles. How cool is that? All glory to God!

All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Psalm 139:16