This morning I have been continuing to work on a concept for a book that a friend and I have come up with. Part of that process has taken me back many years and has me reading over the ramblings I have had and shared. Wow, words are so powerful because they can have unique meanings depending on where the reader is at in his or her life, and depending on what God chooses to open their eyes to.

Following is something that I came across this morning. It struck me this morning because nearly daily it seems that something will happen to me that goes contrary to my intended purpose. Not talking a catastrophic event here, just a lower case “shoot” or “dang”. And yet, sometimes moments later (if I am lucky), I come to be thankful for the “mishap”. So, like yesterday we were making dinner and were missing a key ingredient. Which meant I needed to go to the store. Shoot! Not exactly in the plans. Yet, as I am checking out of the store I got to see the daughter of one of our friends and congratulate her on her high school graduation over the weekend. Cool! I need to remember that in all things God has a purpose. He has His own timing.

“A lone shipwreck survivor on an uninhabited island managed to build a rude hut in which he placed all that he had saved from the sinking ship. He prayed to God for deliverance, and anxiously scanned the horizon each day to hail any passing ship. One day he was horrified to find his hut in flames. All that he had was gone. To the man’s limited vision, it was the worst that could happen and he cursed God. Yet the very next day a ship arrived. ‘We saw your smoke signal,’ the captain said.”
– Walter Heiby

As I re-read those words for about the fourth or fifth time this morning one word jumps out at me this: prayer. Well, now two things: the man cursed God and yet God still honored his prayer. Sure, this story is probably made up, but I think it is also a subtle reminder to me that God looks at my heart and not my immediate reaction to “tragedies” in my day, in my life.