Road Signs, GPS & Destiny

Times have changed. I used to watch road signs when traveling. Now I use GPS. But I forgot mine this weekend, which took me back to the past. In more ways the one.

Saturday evening, en route to my motel here in suburbia Minneapolis, I noticed a road sign: “Mankato, straight ahead.” The last time I saw a sign for Mankato was 36 years ago.

Many of you know the story. Sue and I spent the second night of our honeymoon in Duluth, on the shores of Lake Superior. We were hoping to enjoy the water but discovered ice formations instead. It was bitterly cold that night. In fact, it was so cold the next morning we decided to go south ... all the way to southern Minnesota ... to the city of Mankato.

Actually, our primary motivation was to visit a dear friend who was unable to be in my wedding because he was traveling with a group called Life Action. They were in a church conducting a “crusade.” Jeff couldn’t come to us, so we went to him. That’s right--we went to church on the third night of our honeymoon.

That was my first real exposure to Life Action. BUT, more importantly, it was my first real exposure to a profound sense of God’s presence. A magnet to our thirsty souls. That is why Sue and I immediately became Life Action “groupies.” Deep down it was more like “God groupies.” We wanted more. And more. And more. Of Him.

Fast forward. Yesterday morning, after I finished preaching to several hundred people, there was, once again, a profound sense of God’s presence. Three-fourths of the congregation came to the altar in response to God’s conviction. I sat on the front row and began to weep (and I am not a weeper!).

Then it hit me. Here I am, in close proximity to where I was 36 years earlier, being exposed once again to an overwhelming sense of the presence of God.

But this time, I was not sitting in the pew. I was an instrument in helping to bring about the presence of God. This is when I began to lose it. From pew to pulpit. How could this be?

My life’s journey raced before me ... because this is where my spiritual destiny began.

You see, God knew where Sue and I would be on that honeymoon night in 1973. He knew what it would take to get us out of Duluth to encounter LAM in Mankato. So God orchestrated a weather system to ensure we would not stay in Duluth. He even timed our wedding so we would be in the same part of the country as Life Action. And He even, a couple of decades earlier, moved Sue’s family from Boston to Minneapolis and then on to Tomahawk, Wisconsin, where we were married. And of course, before all that, He even orchestrated our conception. And He did it all, before the earth was formed.

I am huge on the sovereignty of God and the free will of man. But thinking in terms of the “what ifs” only deepens my awareness of His amazing providence. What if I had not visited Mankato in 1973? Since my journey with Life Action has been nothing short of extraordinary, would I have missed it all? Only God knows.

But I know the joy I felt Sunday morning as I contemplated God’s goodness in bringing me in contact with this ministry ... which brought me in contact with Jesus in a personal way for the first time in my life. And that joy overwhelmed me yesterday. I hope it always does.

I guess I'd never thought of it quite like I did yesterday morning. Perhaps it was nostalgia? Perhaps just deja vu? Or perhaps it was more.

Perhaps it was God simply reminding me that “God’s Positioning System” leads us to a destination that is beyond our furthest dreams. Listening to His voice and following Him in the twists and turns of life will take us on the most thrilling adventure imaginable.

America is longing to experience what I did: God's presence. It determined my destiny. And it will be His presence that will determine the destiny of our nation.

God’s presence is the powerful magnetic force that will turn “world groupies” into “God groupies.” And just like me, those groupies will eventually become human conveyors of His presence to others, until “the whole earth is full of His glory!”

Amazed by Him!

Byron

Executive Director
Life Action Ministries

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