Don't Miss the Moment

Last week, somewhere at a random truck stop in Northern California, God reminded me that the Kingdom doesn’t always make appointments the way we do.

Sometimes heaven doesn’t send you a calendar invite.

Sometimes it sends you to a truck stop.

I was traveling when I saw somebody who looked incredibly familiar.

Wait a minute… is that Ruslan?

Ruslan KD is a Christian YouTuber, podcaster, and preacher I’ve followed for several years.  And there he was in the middle of nowhere, with his family.

Now, I’ve been preaching quite a bit lately about kairos moments, those God ordained moments inside ordinary time when something opens up and you have a choice:

Recognize it or walk past it.

So I thought, Well, Randy… you better go for it.

I got his attention.  

Sure enough, it was him.

And what followed was one of those simple Kingdom moments that probably meant more to me than he realized.

The Person Behind the Platform

I was immediately impressed by how gracious Ruslan and his family were.

There was no rush to get away.  No strange “celebrity Christian” energy.  We just stood there talking.

Preacher to preacher.

Two guys on the road talking about Jesus, ministry, fasting, churches, and what God is doing in our lives.

At one point, I told Ruslan about something he had done that genuinely affected me.

He had produced an episode about Pastor Joey Martin and the 1122 Church.  Ruslan didn’t just sit behind a microphone and offer an opinion about a megachurch, he actually went there.

He interviewed Pastor Joby.

He toured the church.

He looked at what they were doing.

He learned about the way they cared for their community.

And that episode humbled me.  

I told him that.

Because if I’m going to preach about becoming more like Jesus, then I have to be willing to admit when Jesus corrects something in me.

I had developed assumptions about megachurches.

It’s easy to look at something large and assume it must be shallow.  To see the lights, buildings, numbers, influence, and immediately become suspicious of it.

But suspicion is not discernment.

And cynicism isn’t a spiritual gift.

Watching Ruslan actually go investigate instead of simply criticize challenged me.  Seeing what God was doing through Pastor Joby and that church forced me to confront some of my own thinking.

And I’m grateful for that.

Sometimes humility sounds like:

“I was wrong.”

Sometimes growth begins when we stop defending our perspective long enough to let God enlarge it.

Then He Asked About Me

I shared a little of my own journey with Ruslan.

After 19 years of pastoring the church here in Hemet Ca. that God entrusted to my wife and me, I recently turned it over and stepped into a completely different season.

Dead Men Collective.

Preaching

Writing

Men

Conferences

Retreats

Seminars

Pastoral care

Going wherever God opens the door.

Its strange.

For almost two decades, I knew where I was supposed to be every Sunday morning.

Now I’m learning again what it means to follow God on the road.

And perhaps that’s why this little truck-stop encounter hit me differently.

Because I’ve spent years preaching about Abraham leaving what was familiar.

Israel stepping into the Jordan before the waters moved.

And now God has me living some of those sermons again…

I’ve discovered something about following Jesus:

You can know where you’ve been without always knowing where you’re going next.

That doesn’t mean you are lost.

It might mean you’re being led.

Chronos & Kairos

There are different Greek words used in Scripture concerning time.

Chronos speaks of measurable time, the clock, the calendar, the passing of minutes and days.

But Kairos carries the idea of an appointed or opportune time, a moment, a season, an opening.  A non repeatable moment.

And I think one of the great dangers of life is becoming so consumed with Chronos that we miss Kairos.

We’re trying to get somewhere.

Checking our phones.

Watching the clock.

Thinking about what will happen next.

Meanwhile, God may have put somebody ten feet away from us.

Paul writes:

“Look carefully then how you walk… making the best use of the time…”

Ephesians 5:15-16

That word translated “time” there is kairos.

In other words:

Pay attention to how you walk because there are moments worth redeeming.

Maybe the miracle isn’t always that God changes your destination.

Sometimes the miracle is who He puts along the road.

God Orders Steps

“The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.”

Proverbs 16:9

I love that.

Because I had plans that day.

Ruslan had plans that day.

Neither one of us woke up and texted…

MEET AT RANDOM TRUCK STOP IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

But there we were.

And this is something I’m learning more deeply this season:

If God orders our steps, then we should probably pay attention to where our feet have landed.

We spend so much time asking God, “Where are You taking me?”

Maybe we should stop and ask:

“God, why do You have me here?”

Who is standing in front of me?

What can I do to be a part of their encouragement, maybe they are here to encourage me.

Maybe we miss divine appointments because we expect them to feel more divine.

We’re waiting for thunder.  

God sends a conversation.

We want a miracle.

God sends a truck stop.

Don’t become so obsessed with the spectacular that you miss the sacred hiding inside the ordinary.

Just a Great Day in the Kingdom

Before we left, Ruslan and I took a selfie, the picture you see with this blog.

We sent it to Pastor Joby because apparently I resemble him a little lol.

And that was it.

I walked away encouraged about what God is doing in the earth and with his people.

Maybe the interruption isn’t the interruption.

Put the phone down.

Look up.

Maybe the person you almost walked past is part of the story.

God moves in mysterious ways…

And sometimes that looks like a truck stop.