I was reading a book the
other day “In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day”. It is an incredible book
talking about perspective on obstacles in life and being able to face your
fears. It talks about not running from lions but rather chasing them. I highly
recommend reading it.
What I want to talk about though is a line that says “God is in the resume-building business. He
is always using past experiences to prepare us for future opportunities.” God
has uses past struggles I have gone through to give testimonies of hope to
others that are currently struggling. I know that God doesn’t cause me to fall
but he sure doesn’t waist the opportunity to use those failures for good.
I think he does the same thing with good things in our lives
as well. He uses past and current desires and experiences to relate to people
and ultimately to further the kingdom.
This is what God did this past week.
After our several hour van ride to Hua Hin, Thailand I was
very anxious to be active and go for a run. I grabbed a map from the front desk
and checked out the route to the beach. Within minutes of getting out of the
van I was changed and ready for my run. I took off and of coarse missed the
very first turn sending me on an hour detour to the beach. After running along
the beach for about 20 minutes a soldier stopped me and said “NO” that was the
only English word he knew so it didn’t give me much for information on what he
wanted me to do. He eventually pointed toward the road and gave me a stern look
that said “Get the heck out of here”. I later found out that the open beach
where I was running was the beach access to the King’s palace… woops!
The fact I missed my turn and got kicked off the beach onto
the road was no coincidence though. God was directing me back on the road. He
wanted to use a past experience for good and develop another experience for the
future.
That road lead straight to a fire station. My past and
current desire to become a fire fighter told me to stop in and say hello and my
past experiences with ride alongs provided me with knowledge to be able to talk
to the firefighters. They loved talking with me. They loved to practice their
English and talk about America. We talked about their department, their
families, their religion and our different countries. I was able to tell them about the shift schedule back in the states, the different ranks in the departments,
generally what the calls were, equipment that is used in the states and other
things I had picked up over the 6 months of applying to be a firefighter. But
the coolest thing of all is I got to talk to them about Jesus.
God used my past experiences for the future opportunity of
telling these firefighters about Jesus. I also believe that he will use this experience as a
past experience to get me closer to my future opportunity of full time firefighting.
If it was any other member of my team that got lost and
kicked off the beach that day, they would have walked right past that fire
station probably with out even noticing it was there. But it wasn’t someone
else, it was me. It was me because when we truly surrender our lives, our will,
to God He uses every part of our past experience for his glory. He even uses
the bad things we have done. When we surrender our lives to Christ those things
are forgiven. We are washed clean. We no longer live in shame and guilt but
rather walk in confidence that God has made us a new creation. He will give us
opportunities to use those past experiences, those past struggles, to testify
to God’s mercy, God’s glory, God’s undying love for us.
The firefighters didn’t fall down on their knees and accept
Christ right then and there. But they did get to talk to a stranger that truly
cared about them, a stranger willing to come back day after day to see them, a
stranger that brought them gifts and taught them English. A stranger that
called himself a “Christian” (a word they had never heard before). A stranger
that told them about another God besides Budda, a loving, living God named
Jesus.
This is the best safety equipment they had. He was embarrassed to even show it to me because he knew it wasn’t good. The needs of departments like this around the world has been something God has been laying on my heart. It has been something that he has been speaking to me about doing something about in the future. Only time will tell what role I can play in helping to solve this problem in departments around the world.
