I must confess that my dental hygienist in Hickory got on my nerves sometimes. All that Michelle knew about me (or so I thought) was that I was a retired elementary school teacher. So she insisted on peppering me with questions about whether her two young children were the child prodigies that she seemed to think that they were.

What annoyed me was the fact that Michelle always seemed to wait until my mouth was so full of dental paraphernalia that I could barely breathe much less speak to begin her barrage of questions. But she seemed to genuinely enjoy our one-sided conversations. For all I knew she was interpreting my grunts to mean “Why yes, your offspring are definitely Ivy League material.”

One day Michelle loaded up my mouth and began, “I know you to be a person of faith…” Good grief!!! How could she have possibly known such a thing??? I’d barely spoken more than three words to her in all of the time that I’d been around her with my mouth empty! I prayed for all I was worth to be able to submit my will to God and do whatever it was that I felt pretty sure He was about to ask me to do.

A Still, Small Voice seemed to be whispering today’s text in my ear. “Really Lord??? Here??? Now???” I gulped and listened to Michelle’s story, but then what choice did I have?

It seemed that she lived in a rural area and one of her neighbors was a vicious busybody. Michelle and her husband had not yet found a church home where they felt comfortable leaving their young children with strangers in the nursery. Michelle’s neighbor had taken it upon herself to leave a note in Michelle’s mailbox informing her that she and her husband were going straight to Hell if they didn’t take those children to church.

When my mouth was finally empty I whispered, “All I know is that the loving Lord whom I worship and adore will be waiting to welcome you with open arms whenever you feel the time is right for you and your family to attend church together.”

So be ready with those answers about the Source of our hope and joy, Beloved. And be ready to submit to whatever it is that God wants you to do whenever He taps you on the shoulder. If it happened to me in such an unlikely time and place, it could just as easily happen to you.

Prayer:

Holy One, submission to your will is hard and I confess that it is a garment that doesn’t seem to fit me very well. Forgive me for the times when I’d much rather run and hide whenever You ask me to speak a word for You.