Here's A Wild God Story For You
Can God make you vomit in the middle of the night to further His purposes?
I’ve got a little stealth project in the works and am looking to connect with people within a 30-minute radius of Ypsilanti. Know any Michiganders in the area? Please hit reply and let me know!
We were supposed to leave at 9:00 A.M. for a week in Wales for Michelle’s work.
But we wanted to leave the house perfect for our Home Exchange guests, a cute little family from France.
One thing led to another, and we didn’t end up leaving until 1:30 P.M.
We drove for miles…
And then our car overheated.
We’d already spent over $1,500 on it in the past two weeks, replacing both radiators.
This time it was the cooling pump and related bits and bobs, costing nearly $800.
We limped it back to the shop.
Then rented a car at the eye-watering $1,100. (Thanks bankers for inflating the money supply and devaluing everyone’s money.)
We didn’t end up leaving town until 5:00 P.M.
Over seven hours later, past 1:00 A.M., we were on the home stretch in Wales.
Suddenly Michelle exclaimed, “Pull over right now, I need to puke.”
This has never happened in our eighteen years of marriage and decades of knowing each other since we were twelve.
I pulled over, she got out, and waited for the worst.
About thirty seconds later, a car drove by, then turned around and came back.
A young gal in her early twenties hopped out.
“Do you need any help?”
Michelle and I both looked up. “Daisy?” [Name changed for privacy.]
Daisy was just as suprised as we were.
“It’s you!”
Daisy had been a kid in the church youth group we helped lead years earlier when we lived in Wales.
What a strange coicidence.
I gave her a big hug and we chatted while Michelle tried not to vomit.
We later learned that earlier that day, her brother has said to here, “I haven’t seen Jay and Concord in a while, I miss them.” Then that evening, her cousin’s face had swollen up, and Daisy had driven her to the hospital, where the doctors said she was fine and her face went back to normal, so they drove home, which is how Daisy came to our aid.
I sensed God was up to something.
“Come to church next Sunday,” I said.
Daisy said she’d try, and drove off.
Michelle immediately felt better.
Sunday came. Daisy sat with us. After the service, we swapped stories about how we ended up passing each other on such a random road at such a random time.
“God is pursuing you, Daisy,” I said.
She nodded yes, clearly.
“Do you want to become a Christian?” I asked.
She immediately said yes.
“Do you want to become a Christian right now?” I asked.
She said yes.
Michelle double and triple checked that this is was Daisy really wanted — there can’t be any sort of pressure about such a massive decision — and then led her in a prayer of salvation.
“God as pursuer” has been a major theme in our lives this year.
It seems He’s pursuing a lot of people right now.
Last week at our church small group, we read the Parable of the Lost Coin, the Parable of the Lost Sheep, and the Parable of the Prodigal Son. The small group leader gave us all a coin and asked us to pray for the “lost coins,” the people in our lives who need Jesus. While we were praying, her teenage son texted from camp to say he’d just become a Christian.
God doesn’t want anyone to live life or the afterlife apart from Him. So he searches like a shepherd looking for lost sheep.
Some people run the other direction.
Some people try to stand their ground and fight.
Others come home to their Father.
The choice is ours, every day, and every moment.
Sometimes it takes thousands of dollars worth of car repairs and endless hours of driving in the dark and a swollen face and nausea to get people’s attention.
It was worth it.