Why Here?

Why Here?

It was absolutely frigid outside; the air was frozen in place. On the highway, snow was falling so heavily I could barely see out the windshield. The glass had been covered with a combination of snow and streaked ice providing a view into the dismal wintry night that spoke of the many frightening possibilities still ahead. The heat from the defroster shattered the windshield in my vain attempt to gain visibility. And again, in my heart I wondered, how I had ever gotten to this place in life. Why here? Why now? And most disturbing, why me? Thirteen years behind the wheel of a truck and I was college educated. I was born again. I wanted to follow the Lord. I wanted His direction in my life. Yet, here I sat. Tonight, like so many other nights, I was in the seat of an 18-wheeler frightened for the life of all those around me, knowing how horribly the night could change with one simple mistake. Is this really what God wanted for my life? At home I had two lovely children and a beautiful wife who were counting on me. How could this be God’s will?

Have your thoughts gone there as well? Wherever you are tonight, have you wondered if you are in the right place?

Maybe you are in the military. It wasn’t your first choice in life. It seemed like an opportunity. It was a choice that would allow you an income, and possibly training that may help as you reconsidered the direction life was taking. But now, now you find yourself deep in the heart of a distant, hostile country.  Or, maybe you are on a battleship in the middle of a vast ocean with no land in site. Above, looms a sky painted with more stars than you have ever imagined as you cruise over an ocean void of humanity. Not a soul in sight except for those on your vessel. Hundreds of miles of nothing, in every direction. And you are wondering, how you ever got here. Surely, this was by accident. Is it even possible to see God’s purpose in life when you are so far from anything that seems reasonable?

Maybe you were studying for the medical field and now you find yourself on an assembly line, in a factory watching parts go by? Certainly, you are better than this. But, is it possible that one of your co-workers was placed there by God because God knew you would be there today? Did God want you to meet? But, you are educated and your co-workers are…are not. You could be the only person able to reach that one individual. God knows where we need to be.

Or, maybe you are waiting tables in a second-rate restaurant. Serving food to people who think they are superior to you simply because you are paid to bring them food. Is it even possible that this could be God’s will for your life? You have studied. You have a degree, or almost have one. You are better than this. You had hopes and dreams. Yet, isn’t it just possible that God put you there to help a young mother who is struggling in life with the same issues you faced just a few years ago (II Cor. 1:4)? It might be absolutely imperative that a young person sitting at the edge of a psychological precipice meets you today. What if your frustration with life blinds your eyes to their need? Would they be able to find help?

We fail to see God’s will for our life when we focus on “our plan” for “our life.” When I was an over-the-road truck driver (with a college degree) I was surprised to learn that the job I wanted was not as important as I had once imagined it to be. We tend to focus on what will take us through life in a financially secure fashion. As a Christian, is that the direction God wants us to go? On my journey in trucking I met a young man who needed desperately to talk to someone. I never saw his face. I met him very late at night on my CB radio. At first, he was rude and spiteful. But, soon he settled down as we began to talk about the Lord. That night he found answers that might never have come had I been somewhere else, instead of being on that radio, in that truck. I met another individual who told me he wasn’t married, even though he was living with a lady and had two children by her. After a very lengthy, and less than polite, conversation he finally understood how God viewed his situation. We had many conversations over the next couple of weeks. He came by my truck before he began his vacation time and told me he was going home to propose to the young lady. Would he have done so if we never met? I cannot possibly tell you how many people I met over those 13 years. But, every one of them was placed there by God. And, I often wonder how many I never met because of my attitude toward my situation. I did not want to be a truck driver. It was a job I always disdained. And yet, somehow in life it became the place God chose to use me. Ultimately, I learned that our job in life is not to do our job. Our job is to be used by God in our present situation.

As children of God we are never anywhere by accident. We may miss a thousand opportunities in life because of our attitude and our inability to see His purpose. But that does not mean the privilege to serve Him was never there. Wherever you are today, a foreign country, a Navy ship, or in a factory you have come to loathe, stop for a moment and look around you. Embrace the privilege of service and meet each and every person God brings into your live, they are not there by accident.

Why here? Why this job? Because, somebody very near to you right now, is there because God wants you to meet.