Submitted by Sharon Gainor, Capitol Heights Lighthouse President.
On Wednesday (Feb 28) morning in my prayer time, I asked the Lord to use me to be a blessing to someone. I was scheduled to drop my car off for repairs and was it was promised to me prior to the end of the day so I could drive home. We all know the saying about the “best laid plans” needless to say, my car was not ready for pickup and had to remain at the auto shop overnight. Unfortunately, this left me without transportation home from work. My mechanic and brother in Christ offered to reimburse me if I used Uber. So I had my daughter arrange for me to take Uber home and I had a nice friendly chat with the driver.
Thursday morning came and my daughter and I discussed how I would get to work. She works nights as a nurse, so oftentimes after a difficult 12 hour shift, she does not want to fight the traffic going from Maryland to my job in Virginia. So once again she arranged for an Uber to take me to work. We discussed doing Uber pool which was cheaper, or just having myself and the driver. Of course I chose the latter. When the driver came and I got into the car, I thanked her for coming and we started down the road. I felt a nudging to “talk” to the driver, a woman roughly my age, but she was using her car’s navigation system and looking at her cell phone periodically and I didn’t want to distract her. Again I felt a nudging to start a conversation. So I asked if she liked the vehicle she was using and we started talking about cars, gas mileage, and my desire to purchase a new vehicle. I related the story of why I was using Uber and mentioned how I thought about getting upset about the situation but decided that God was still in control so I chose to simply go with the flow. My driver, Tina, then mentioned that she had lost her job, and was having difficulty finding employment due to what she believed was age discrimination. She shared a distressing moment when she had a prospective employer schedule an interview over the phone via FaceTime, but they hung up once the connection came through and they were able to see her. I knew then that this was the moment that God had orchestrated for us to talk! I then talked briefly about discrimination practices but I assured her that God saw, heard, and cared about her and she was to be encouraged because sometimes He used disappointing and hurtful situations in our lives to position us in place for a wonderful blessing!! My driver got very emotional and told me that truly God had put me in her car! She stated that she needed to be encouraged and was grateful that I chose to strike up a conservation. She then just shared that she was married to a Jewish man who was unsaved and God opened another door for me to share about the ministry of Aglow International and our heart for the Jewish people. Tina and I had a wonderful conservation and My Father allowed me to share and encourage her, and it started with things not going according to plan with my vehicle!
Someone told me years ago that man can put you in positions, but only God can position you in place! Disappointments in our lives can be used by God to plant our feet on a firmer path and open our hearts to a deeper place of fellowship with Him. I am learning to quickly seek the place of peace when disappointments come. God’s word declares that no weapon formed again me shall be able to prosper. Weapons are not always metal nor do they always draw blood! Depressions, job loss, death, worry, and stress are weapons the ENEMY uses to distract us and cause us to focus on what’s going on around us and not on the GOD IN us! Before we declare that the situation we find ourselves in is the enemy at work, let’s consider that maybe God is allowing situations to occur and He can position us in place for where He is leading us!
