God is sneaky. I’m pretty sure that’s not in the Bible (unless you read a very loose translation), but I’m convinced of the fact. He tells us to be wise as serpents, and He models that for us.
For example, today Paula and I shared at a church in Burlingame, CA called Three Cities Assembly. The San Francisco Forty-Niners had a playoff game today, so I was expecting the attendance to be a little bit down. Other than that, I wasn’t expecting anything unusual.
God had other plans, though.
After the service, it’s customary for a missionary guest speaker to be available to shake hands and chat with people. I met the head of anthropology for Wycliffe Bible Translators after the service today–that was pretty cool. I also met a guy who used to be in a Chi Alpha group led by some friends of mine in Stockton, CA. That was also pretty cool. It’s not unusual to meet very cool people after the service.
I also met one of my upstairs neighbors, which was pretty surprising (and cool).
The best was yet to come, however.
Towards the end of the goodbyes, I met a young man named Charles who was visiting the church for the first time. Charles is a first-year Stanford grad student, and even though Burlingame is a good 25 miles away from Stanford he decided to visit the church today because he used to know Pastor Herndon back when they both lived in Las Vegas (Charles was actually in Jay’s youth group).
Charles has been trying to find a church that can accomodate his crazy student schedule: every third or fourth Sunday he won’t be able to go to church. Today he learned about Chi Alpha @ Stanford and he was able to hear me preach.
I guess he liked what he heard, because he’s planning to join us for worship on campus this Tuesday!
How providential of God–to bring us to the same church at the same time and arrange a connection. He’s sneaky I tell you…