It is hard to believe another school year is coming to a close… so this will be my last writing for a while. I want to say ‘thanks’ to Steve Wolf, my techi-friend, poet, and song-writer who lives in Colorado but still helps me out. Friends at school kindly ignore my errors before Steve reads, gently corrects, and sends to others.
This story is a bit long to cover in detail, but my family learned some things this past weekend I’d like to pass along. I had to go to school early Saturday morning to get ready for a camp staff meeting, so Susan was in charge of getting Kinsey to the airport for a medical mission trip to Tanzania, Africa. Her team left on schedule last Sunday but was turned back because of the unpredictable volcano that has disrupted so much travel in the world. Kinsey got to come home for a few days before their re-scheduled attempt to get out of the country. Her trip initiated in Dallas so we purchased a one-way ticket from Atlanta to Dallas where she was to meet two friends. From there the trip was scheduled to go to Detroit then Amsterdam then Africa. Well, due to a few reasons, Kinsey arrived at the gate in terminal D sixty seconds after the gate closed. (She could painfully explain the meaning of Jesus’ parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25. When a door is shut, never to be opened again… and you are late, the feeling is indescribably horrible.) I got the emotional call a few minutes before my staff meeting was to begin. “Kinsey, gather yourself. We just need to solve this problem and get you to Dallas before your next plane leaves for Detroit.”
The problem was… I didn’t know how to solve the problem. The next flight on that airline would get to Dallas too late and no one seemed eager to help. I handed Susan the phone and ran upstairs to my meeting with little hope for a solution. Everyone in the meeting knew Kinsey, so I shared the dilemma and asked my friend, Daniel, to pray. “Lord, we ask for your supernatural intervention to rescue Kinsey in this situation.” The answer to the prayer came when Susan told Kinsey to get back on the train and return to the front of the airport to try to purchase another ticket. On the train, she looked up and saw the father of one of her best friends from high school. He greeted her and asked what was wrong. “Mr. Ramon, I’ve missed a flight and I don’t know how to catch a plane to join my team going to Africa.” Mr. Ramon knew of Kinsey’s trip but little did we know the part he was to play. “Kinsey, I missed three flights on a business trip yesterday due to weather. I know exactly how you feel and we’re going to find a way.”
“He was the perfect person, Dad. He remained calm as he fought for me and he would not take ‘no’ for an answer.” For no charge, Kinsey ended up sitting in the last remaining seat (business class, no less) on a flight from Atlanta to Detroit where she met up with her team for the rest of the journey. Other heroes sacrificed to get her luggage (which did make it on the plane to Dallas) to Detroit and Susan, with tears in her eyes, gave a praise report at the end of our camp meeting.
I had not intended to stress this point with my staff, but God knows what is most important. I recounted, “Jesus says, ‘Seek, ask, and knock’… that is what we all did on Kinsey’s behalf and look at how He answered!” We serve an incredible God! He can overcome our weaknesses and errors; He hears our cries; and He loves to intervene. I have seen this so often and yet I easily forget. If God is this personal and if there is nothing good He can’t do, should I not be at his throne of grace more often? If I plead for a daughter whose important journey was endangered, should I not plead for endangered souls all over the world? If God cares about the small details of our lives, think how He must care about the lost and the captive and the hurting. I want to pray for ‘supernatural intervention’ every day. When I come face to face with the impossible, I want to go straight to God without hesitating. “God, You are able. God, You desire good more than I do. God, You want your incredible kingdom to be witnessed here on earth. So… rescue the perishing, heal the sick, cast out evil, and wake up the sleeping. For your glory, Lord, answer the prayers of your children… and may we not shrink back from asking impossible things. We pray in the Name of the One who lived this way. Amen.”
“Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going to wake him up…Take away the stone… Lazarus, come out!…Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” John 11
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations (this includes ours!!), for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21