(original message sent via email 7/31/23)
Thank you for all the thoughtful notes and prayers. I am still waiting on results so I appreciate your continued prayers. While I was at my surgery last week, something happened that I wanted to share with you, not because it happened to me, but because I wholeheartedly believes something similar is available for you.
Last week before surgery, I heard the nurse who was checking me in say to someone, "God bless you." I initially didn't say anything to her about it because people say that here and there just because. But after I heard her mention God for a second time to someone else I felt compelled to ask her if God was a part of your life. This lovely woman smiled and said, "Absolutely!" Then she shared with me how over the past couple of years she has been focusing on growing her relationship with God. It was such a blessing to me to be laying there before surgery and be able to have God be the center of our conversation.
Then, when I woke up after surgery, I was in a different room and had a new nurse beside me. I can't remember how our conversation began as I was waking up from anaesthesia. What I do know is my new nurse also was sharing with me about his faith in God and how important his relationship with God was to him, and his wife. It was such a gift to not only have one, but two people beside me that day, sharing their stories about God with me.
Moments like this I call divine appointments, when God places someone along our path to remind us we are where we need to be and that God is with us on the journey.
This isn't the first time God has placed people beside me and every time I recognize it, I am so grateful. Yet I am sharing this not because this happened to me but that I wholeheartedly believe that God places people beside you as well, each and every day.
God is with us and He goes before us, placing people along our path each day. We can learn from everyone we interact with, not just other people of faith. May we keep our eyes and ears open for the connections He puts along our way to remind us He is with us and has love along the way for us to receive. And may we also remember, that sometimes we are the ones God is placing along other people's paths, and we get to be the ones who live out love for God, through our words or action, towards others along their journeys.
So as we enter this week, I invite you to join me to...
pause. breathe. pray.™
Wherever we go this week, may we remember to keep our eyes and ears open for the people God has placed along our path. May we also keep our hearts and minds open - and willing - to be the person to live out love towards someone else for God. May we give, and receive the love He has for us along the way each day, no matter how it comes our way, which for me last Monday, was two people of faith walking me into and out of my surgery.
With love and hope,
Shawn
P.S. For more encouragement this week, listen to the NEW PODCAST EPISODE AVAILABLE BELOW!!!
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed,
for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
- Isaiah 41:10