Listen Up!

The dial on the bedside clock of the hotel room read 1:00 a.m. Suddenly our friend was startled awake by a voice that could only be God's. "Get up and go home," the Voice instructed. "I want you to attend that Sunday school class you used to teach," he heard in amazement. Yes, he had taught a class for several months, but that was before the unexpected death of his wife. He hadn't been back there since, and the class was now being taught by someone else, a brilliant, elderly lawyer, retired.

To his own astonishment, he found himself dressing and heading out into the winter night at 2:00 a.m. for the four-hour ride home. He had come to Arkansas to bring some mementos of his wife to a friend who wanted them. All the past trauma had suddenly become too much. He had had to get away...from well-meaning family, the packing, sorting, the hundreds of decisions that had to be made after the loss of his wife of 50 years. So many things to be gone through. Neither he nor his daughters had realized how many collections their mother had, nor how vast they were. It was suddenly overwhelming; this trip would do him good.

But now he was making his way home in the wee hours. What could it all mean? Arriving home at 7:00, he slept just long enough to rise, shower and make it to the church. The teacher, who had developed a scholarly series for the class, came to the front and announced, "I won't be teaching what I had planned today. God woke me up at 1:00 o'clock this morning and told me to talk about what I went through when I lost my wife."

Our friend listened in a state of shock. It was just what he needed to hear! The testimony of someone who had been there and knew what he was experiencing! The sense of loss, disorientation, confusion, grief, decision-making--he too, had been overwhelmed and unable to cope. The speaker spoke of the day when God got his attention, and with love and compassion reassured him that He was beside him and had plans for him.

He approached the speaker at the close of the class. "Did you know I had just lost my wife?" he questioned, to which the teacher exclaimed, "No! I just knew that God changed my message at one this morning." When the visitor told him his story, tears cascaded down the speaker's face. In awe of God's care and concern, our friend felt a healing taking place in his heart.

Last night at church we heard a sermon on Philip, who God spoke to and instructed to go to Gaza to preach to the Ethiopian official (Acts 8:12). Philip had been in a great revival in Samaria with healings, miracles and multitudes of people. "No one wants to be interrupted in the middle of a successful revival," the minister lady stressed, "but Philip was obedient to go!" Apparently God still speaks to those willing to go.