Mysterious ways

[Kendall K. Down]

This is from an e-mail I received today. Names and places have been
redacted.

===========
I was intending to preach on the story of Naaman at **** (next in my
stories series) but, knowing I was preaching at +++++ the following
week, it was in my mind to prepare something on the story of the man
born blind. Anyway, somehow, whenever I set to go through my
notes/thoughts on Naaman, all I could think of was the blind man.

Then, Friday morning, I got a call from one of the elders at **** asking
me to call him later for advice/thoughts on a very difficult situation
the church finds itself in. To cut a long story short, it turned out
that the message I'd prepared on the blind man was perfect for that
situation - so that was obviously the one I went with.

However, things were not over. We set off in plenty of time but got
warnings that the M42 was closed and there were 11 minute delays on the
M40 due to a lane closure. This was born out by the stanav, overhead
gantry signs and the BBC traffic news which pops up on the car despite
our best efforts to turn the wretched thing off! When we got to the
traffic jam, we found out there was nothing wrong with the M42, but the
M40 (we needed) was completely shut!! Needless to say, there are no real
alternative routes once you're in that mess and the minor roads we
filtered off onto were now carrying the whole traffic of the motorway so
it took us well over two hours to cover the 40 miles to ****. We got
there just as they were singing the final chorus of the song before the
sermon!

It seems perhaps the Devil did his best to prevent that message being
preached. Anyway, they appreciated the sermon and felt it had served a
purpose in their present situation.
=========

It is always wonderful when we see God and the devil in conflict and
ourselves helping out - in however minor a way - on the right side.
Praise the Lord for the opportunity.

God bless,
Kendall K. Down