I had one of those experiences last week...you know, the kind where looking back on it you say "I will never forget that for the rest of my life."
I was at work, plowing through the normal administrative-type stuff. Then, one of the pastors comes over to my desk and says, "There's a young lady downstairs who is looking for some help. I am going to meet with her, will you come into the meeting as well?" I said it was not a problem at all. When he brings the young lady into his office, she's on the verge of tears. As we start to ask some basic questions, the floodgates open, and we give her some time to release the tears and decide where she wants to begin with her story.
She starts by telling us that she was there for some guidance on a decision she was making. In asking what she needed, she answered, "I need an objective opinion. Someone to share their opinion who isn't in it." Her situation was that she was leaving her home and her family in Pennsylvania to move to an Indian reservation in South Dakota to be with her boyfriend she had met online 7 or 8 months earlier. We began to talk with her about this, asking questions to learn more, and the pastor giving some wonderful, God-led perspective from Scripture and as a father. She listened very intently.
As we talked a little, I asked her, "so, you said your family is in Pennsylvania - are you not from around here?" She not only was not from our church, which would be powerful still, but wasn't even from our part of the country! She literally had her CR-V packed with her stuff, and was traveling from Pennsylvania THAT DAY to move to South Dakota. She had left at 4:30 a.m. to drive up...but something incredible happened. She proceeded to tell me that she had been driving on the highway, and a voice was saying to her "get off the highway, get off the highway and find a pastor". So she got off the highway in Illinois and began looking around our road as she drove. When she was uncertain, she said she was pressed on "don't give up, find a pastor". As she went down the road, she saw our church's sign, and pulled in the driveway. Then she went in, and said, "I need to talk to a pastor." I was overwhelmed. My God had called to this girl while she was driving on the road and drew her into our church to meet Him.
We continued to talk through some of the Truths that were involved with the decision she needed to make, to move to South Dakota or back home. But God was pressing on my heart that she had to hear from us what she evidently knew deep in her heart - the reason she was there was much bigger than what was right in front of her. My own eyes filled with tears as I looked at her and said, "God loves you so much. He loves you so much that He said 'don't go any further, get off the highway now and find one of My children because they have something to tell you.'" We talked about how her circumstance was big, but it was clear that God wanted something even greater for her first. The pastor read from 1 John and Romans and we shared the Gospel and he asked, "Do you want to give your life to Jesus Christ?" She replied with a very sound mind and with purpose, "Yes I do." Praise God He is alive! I spent some more time with her and we made sure we could keep in touch and that she had all she needed to head out. On the way to her car she said, "I am in awe." I replied, "That is a great place to be."
Her story is a testimony to me that my God is exactly who He says He is. She drove 10 hours to IL, got off the highway to hear the Truth and give her life to Jesus, and then chose to drive back home 10 hours to her family. Her life totally changed in one day. She didn't know what awaited her when she left that morning, but God pursued her and she responded to Him, clearly seeing that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
"Be lifted higher than all You've overcome,
Your Name be louder than any other song,
there is no power that can come against Your Love,
the cross was enough."
-Jesus Son of God by Chris Tomlin
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