Culturally Irrelevant

I don’t look for weird things to happen. In fact, I try very hard to ignore them and stick to what I’m sure of. But sometimes you just can’t ignore the obvious. It started on our stop in Vicksburg on the way to Pensacola a couple weeks ago. When I checked in at the hotel, the girl at the desk gave me the electronic keys and said, “You’ll be in room 333.” Instantly, I was hit with Jeremiah 33:3. It was the reference my parents put in the front of my first NKJV study Bible when I graduated from high school. I don’t think a week has gone by since then that I haven’t thought about that Scripture. It has always been important to me. As I was walking away from the desk towards the car I felt the Holy Spirit saying, “Ben, call to me and I’ll answer you.” I told Katy about it when I got in the car.

The next morning we stopped for gas before leaving town. I pre-paid with cash and then went in to collect my change. I picked up a bottle of water for Katy and then went to the register. As I stood there I wondered, “Wouldn’t it be cool if my change was $3.33?” And just like that, the girl rang up my water and there on the register was my change…$3.33! So I smiled and walked to the car and told Katy. We both just laughed and recognized that God has a pretty funny sense of humor.

To make things more interesting, two nights in a row this week I’ve sat up in bed in the middle of the night, wide awake. Both times I’ve looked at the clock and it has been 3:33am. This morning, right after my alarm went off and I hit snooze, Katy and I both sat up in bed because of a noise coming from downstairs. It sounded like a dog barking. Katy stuck her head out the door to listen and said, “It’s one of Jack’s toys. Sounds like it was left on and has a short in it.” So I fumbled down the stairs at 5:30am and began to recognize the sound of Barney like a broken record, repeating the same syllable over and over again. How long it had been stuck like that, I don’t know. But as soon as my feet hit the tile floor, it said clear as day, “Hello, friend. Let’s spend the day together!” Ha! Now that’s rich. I just had to laugh. I was going to sleep in, but that dumb toy got me downstairs and now I was wide awake to hear it say that! I just stood there and thought, “There’s no end to the creative and quirky ways that God will draw us…and even trick us…to seek him, call on him and spend time with him.

Needless to say, I get the point. God is getting through loud and clear. I’ve been spending some time in the book of Nehemiah. I’ve never thought about Nehemiah as a book about prayer, but God is opening my eyes. I’ll throw some things out here in a couple days as I dig a little deeper.