How was your day?

“He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them His way.” Psalm 25:9

How was your day?

I am a door to door salesman. I work on the road a couple of days a week. As you might expect, I see people from a wide range of life. Most of my customers are older. For me to see them I have received a mailing from them – a lead. I route my leads and hit the road. The more organized I am, the more people I can see.

This week I was routed and organized and on the road. I had a good first day but I kept getting the feeling I was in the wrong city. I think God has a way of guiding us to or from something we do not even see, so He moves us. Sometimes I have ended up having conversations that I know God has placed me in. However, it is exceptionally rare for me to switch to a city that I have already worked. That was the case this week. I ended up going to a city with older leads, all previously worked. Plus, I had to drive just over two hours to get back home and then another two hours the next morning. It was weird.

The devotional I read with my wife that morning centered on the fact that sometimes God leads us through calm waters, but other times He leads us through rough waters. Whichever it is, our job is to trust Him. Good enough. But the day was rough. I found people home often enough, but none of them were interested in talking to me. I had doors closed, angry words, just mad people.

I knocked on a door and a friendly looking man welcomed me in. He is 83 years old and a veteran. Lots of potential for conversation. It didn’t take long for me to figure out that he let me in because he was mad at the world and to him, I was world. He started asking me about the VA and how they had treated him. He ended up covering three or four topics, none of which I could help him with.

It was heated. I felt like he let me in just to take out his frustrations. I ended up leaving the house. Unfortunately, my brain stayed there. I could not stop thinking about it. I was mad and frustrated. Not justified, just mad. I let him get under my skin. Then I kept thinking about the devo. Did God need me to go through this? I was not even supposed to be in that city. Frankly I was disappointed in myself that God had to put me through that. It should be easier to reach me.

As the day progressed it started to dawn on me that maybe God needed me to be in the city just for that man. Maybe I would be bothered by it so much that when I ended up driving right by a satellite VA office I would actually stop. I would also be crazy enough to think that someone would have time to see me, that this person would be sympathetic to the situation and that they would actually call him.

As it turns out, that’s exactly what happened. While I do not know what the results will be, I do know that the best people to help a veteran are often other veterans. I am not a veteran, but the lady I found is. My hope is that something got done. My hope is that they figured out a way to help him or at least listen to him and resolve some of his issues.

My point is this. I think I got divinely guided through a day that made no sense – here. I think it made perfect sense to God. I think I often miss opportunities to serve God because of my own agenda or my own way of thinking.

Do you find it easy to attempt to listen for Gods voice?

Do you find it rare to actually hear Gods guidance?

Challenge: Evaluate your current situations. Is it possible that God may be leading you? Let me say it is not just possible, it is likely He is leading you? But to whom? Or to what? Keep trying to hear.

Rick Claiborn