Heavenly Appointments

My good friend Pete, pastor at the church I belong, regularly closes out the service with a benediction that he learned from Richard Halverson, former chaplain to the Senate. He says, 

“You go nowhere by accident.
Wherever you go, God is sending you.
Wherever you are, God has put you there.”

What an amazing assertion! According to this benediction, all of the places I will go today, planned and unplanned, are heavenly appointments.

Recently, Weezie and I were driving remote back roads to attend a wedding in Southwest Virginia. Despite relying heavily on GPS, I missed a turn and was rerouted to an even more remote back road costing me four minutes, according to the GPS. Winding down the desolate road, a man and his two children standing by their car waved us down. I stopped and he asked us if we had jumper cables; his battery was dead. We jump started his car; he went his way and we went our way. A wrong turn in the middle of nowhere led to helping someone who otherwise may have been there for hours. The nuisance of a missed turn and four “wasted” minutes helped a random person. Could it really be true that we go nowhere by accident?

Each day we have heavenly appointments set out before us. They come in two varieties. We have our schedules with meetings, places to go, things to do. They are known. Many of those appointments seem mundane through our earthly eyes, but they are not. They are divine appointments with a heavenly purpose. His purpose may be for us to walk in the grocery store with our mind set on Him. It may be to kindly greet someone at the register. We may never know His purpose in that moment. Or the heavenly appointment may be the meeting at the office which causes a big, internal snore. How might the ordinary meeting change if we discerned His heavenly purpose in that meeting? 

The second kind of heavenly appointment is the interruption. It never seems heavenly; it seems an infringement on what we are meant to do at that moment. Jesus had one of those when the woman touched His garment as He was on His way to heal Jairus’ son. He stopped and healed her. Interruptions can be the most exciting appointments if we will allow them. It is as if God is intervening, shouting “This is important, pay attention.” Unfortunately, we are more likely to treat these frustrating interruptions like a nuisance. Oh, that He might give us eyes to see as He sees!

When you start your day and are praying, consider the heavenly appointments you have that day and lift those up to the Lord. Ask Him to give you eyes to see. Ask Him to help you to be sensitive to His divine interruptions. Then, listen and watch as you walk through your day. Imagine the difference it will make when you and I see each day for the heavenly inspired day it really is.