It’s impossible to connect the dots looking forward but you can always connect them looking back. Today, I can look back over the past two days and connect the dots and see how God was at work.

Two nights ago I received a message via Facebook from someone that is simply a “Facebook friend”. In the message he asked me about getting a prayer chain going for a friend of his that has stage 4 lung cancer and is in the hospital. Even though I don’t know him other than on Facebook and don’t know his friend with cancer, I asked him if he would like for me to go up to the hospital with him the next day (yesterday) and pray. He said he’d love that. So the next day comes (which was yesterday) and I’m sitting at my computer working when I get a call from another friends wife. This friend is in ministry and also has lung cancer. As a matter of fact the doctors said that he wouldn’t live a single day past Christmas…2007. He has his good days and bad days and over the last couple of weeks they’ve all mostly been bad. He woke up yesterday and asked his wife to call me to see if I would come pick him up so he can get out of the house. I told her I would be there in 45 minutes. Keep in mind that I already had my entire day planned before I got the Facebook message of the phone call. I have a lot going on and need to stay on top of it. (Read my previous post on busyness…) While I’m on my way to pick up my friend I call another friend of mine from church who happens to be a mutual friend of the guy I’m about to pick up, just to touch base. I get his voice mail.

Follow me on this so you can connect the dots too. I pick up my friend and as we are driving around I tell him about the Facebook message I got and my offer to go pray. I never mention any names. Shortly after that my phone rings and it’s my friend calling me back. I tell him who I’m with and he tells me to tell him about a mutual friend that they have that has stage 4 lung cancer. It’s the very same person that I didn’t know but was going to pray for later in the day. My friend and I immediately go to the hospital to pray for his friend with lung cancer. As we get to the room we find a note taped to the door that said that “he appreciated everyone coming by and to please keep praying for him but right now he needed to rest.” As my friend kneeled to the ground and I put my hand on his shoulder, we began to pray. Just as we finished and were about to walk off the door opened and it was this guys dad. He told us that he was actually about to come out and take the note off of the door and that we could go in. We had the chance to talk to his mom and dad, and even to him briefly, and then pray for him again before we had to leave.

Looking back I can see several things that God did to make sure that we were both there at that exact moment in time that required both of us to be obedient to what God was asking us to do. I was super busy and had my day planned out. My friend was very sick and really didn’t feel like doing anything.

Look back over the past week, month, even year, and connect the dots and see how God had a hand in many of the things that you’ve experienced and also look back at times that God was at work but you weren’t on board.