Available

Proverbs 16:9 tells us that “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.”  In this journal and in the Caring Bridge entries I have quoted this scripture several times.  Today, it speaks a different message to me.

I’ve written recently about waiting, of learning to dance again and how the Lord has been teaching me some new steps.  This entry will be a bit different.  It is a realization that came to me over the past couple of months.

There have been a number of people who have told me these entries have helped them.  I have appreciated their comments, yet the words you read are not mine.  While they come from my heart and are typed by my fingers, they are put on my heart by God.  To the extent that they help anyone the glory is His and His alone.  This is not false humility….I believe it with all my heart. 

You have sensed, I am sure, a change in me over this past month.  In early May I was able to remove my wedding ring.  Then, almost immediately, I met someone who helped me dramatically.  Kathy has allowed me to begin to look forward again. 

When I told her that, she explained it was an answer to her prayer to be used by God to help others.  We have become close friends over this past month and I’d wanted to bring it up in this journal.  My latest entry on “waiting” was designed to tell how God had forced me to wait while His plans unfolded in my life to include this new friendship.

A few days ago a woman wrote to thank me for that entry on waiting.  She was being forced to wait on a surgery that she wanted NOW. She was, understandably concerned.  Yet, by reading that journal entry she was able to depend upon God’s timing, not her own. 

I had made my plan to introduce Kathy to all of you.  God had used that entry for an entirely different purpose.  All I had done was make my writing available for Him to use.  Kathy had made her friendship available to me and God had used it to help me look forward again.  Then, He used our new friendship and the journal entry to reach this dear woman struggling with a medical challenge. 

When we make ourselves available, when we make our talents available, when we let HIM lead our steps, miracles happen.  People are helped.  Souls can be saved for eternity.  Just make ourselves available….like two unlikely men in a Nashville park did for me.  Like Kathy did for me.  God does the rest.  We just have to be available.  And remember too, John 15:5  “apart from me (Jesus), you can do nothing”.

Would you take a minute…right now…to say a prayer for Bonnie’s friend from BSF who is currently waiting…on answers, on surgery, on treatment, on Him.  God will know for whom you pray.  Just pray for her healing, for her to feel His comfort.