While with Kate this weekend we went to a cute town close to Nashville and walked around their main street. In the middle of one of the stores was a prayer room, pictured above. It was so powerful to see this, as it’s not something we’d see often outside a church or home in New England.

I told Kate and Stephen to go ahead and look around. I wrote a prayer and put it on the wall. Then I sat down in the chair and took a stack of prayers to pray over. As I went through the stack, I prayed over each card and then I got to the last one.

It brought tears to my eyes as I read…

“We pray for healing and strength for Shawne.”

For those who don’t know, Shawne is the nickname my family always calls me, and I spell it just like this.

After the week I had fighting off fear from various angles, sitting there in that store in Tennessee and out of all the piles I could have chosen to read, I chose this one, and this was the last card in the stack! This divine appointment is another confirmation for of how God is real, and that He hears our prayers. He is with us, for us, and goes before us, allowing little moments like this to happen to confirm His love and care for us.

I share this because it was such a powerful moment and also to say that I am not unique. God has divine appointments for each of us along our paths. He knows the depths of our hearts and wants each of us to know He loves and cares for us. He will speak to our hearts in a way that will resonate with who we are as an individual. With that said, I invite you to join me to…

pause. breathe. pray.

May we share the realness of our hearts with God, even if we aren’t fully sold on the fact that He exists - like I did when I first tried prayer on for size fifteen years ago. Let’s not only talk to God, may we also ask for eyes to see and ears to hear Him throughout our days. May we be open to Him working in our hearts and lives, and to the next divine appointment He has for each of us to remind us of His ever-present love and care, as He showed me in this prayer room in Tennessee.

With love and hope,
Shawn