God Has Encouraged Me in Bleak Times by Lori Smith

A couple of months ago my Mom, sister, and I traveled to Springfield to hear Beth Moore speak. Now I have a habit of “building things up” in my mind and when things don’t go exactly to my plan, I tend to get disappointed. Well, we were running extremely late, so supper was not only McDonalds, but McDonalds in the car, which was not exactly what I had planned. After inhaling the greasy food in the car, we finally arrived in Springfield and we were frantically looking for the parking garage. My Mom bypassed the entrance twice, and if you know downtown Springfield, you can’t just go around the block you have to go around two blocks because of all the one-way streets. Well, the third time was not a charm, because by the third time around the parking garage was full. We ended up parking seven blocks away and walking.

We finally arrived at the Convention Center, and it was hot and crowded and we desperately needed to use the restroom. Well, there were 8,800 women there, so you can imagine how well that went. We finally found three seats together in the “nose bleed” section and sat down only to have the praise band announce, “On your feet people!”

Having grown up Catholic with only an organ playing and my hymnal to hide behind, this style of music was still new to me and a little overwhelming. I knew Beth would start preaching soon and with tears welling up in my eyes I was beginning to think that I didn’t belong there. I was the only one out of the three of us that brought a Bible, yet I didn’t feel comfortable with it at all. I tried giving it to my sister because I was afraid that when Beth prompted us to turn to a certain book, I would be fumbling through it, not knowing how to get there. See, I had only recently started reading the Bible, starting in Matthew, and I hadn’t even gotten through it yet. Much to my surprise, Beth said, “Let’s turn to Matthew.” At that very moment,I knew God was speaking to me, saying “You belong here.”

Beth preached all weekend in Matthew. Coincidence? I don’t think so. I think it was God’s reassurance that I’m on the right path and to continue what I’m doing. I’ve come to learn that God in sneaky like that, giving us that extra little nudge when we least expect it, but when we need it the most.