It's a mystery to me how God guides our hearts and minds to make certain decisions, but I believe he does.
One afternoon while we were doing a sound check for a concert in North Carolina, we discovered that we had left some important information in Nashville. We always set up a booth for Mercy Ministries at our concerts, and we say something from the stage about the help they give to hurting girls. But on this trip, we had left all the brochures behind. I remember sitting on stage discussing with the girls whether or not we should even mention Mercy Ministries. Without the brochures and the envelopes for collection donations, we didn't know if it would be worth the effort. However, for no particular reason that I can remember, we decided to go ahead and have Denise share from the stage what Mercy Ministries is all about.
What we didn't know was that there was a young girl in the audience that night who desperately needed to hear about God's mercy and she needed to hear it quickly. Just that day, she had found out that she was pregnant. Unmarried and a teenager, I'm sure she felt her situation was insurmountable.
As Denise shared about Mercy Ministries that night, the Holy Spirit did a work in that young girl's life. After the concert, she came through the autograph line and inconspicuously asked for Mercy's Special Help Line (800/922-9131). We don't even remember her asking!
We later found out that the very next morning she placed a call to Mercy Ministries. She told them she was about to have a secret abortion but that she had heard from us that there was a place she could go to find help and hope without being judged for her past mistakes. It makes me shudder to think that we almost didn't share about the ministry because of some stupid brochures! This girl chose to come to Mercy Ministries here in Nashville, and praise God, her baby was saved and she got her life together with God's help.
I have to believe that without the love of Jesus, this never would have happened. The story wouldn't have had a happy ending. But because he cared for that little girl in that small North Carolina town, he reached down from heaven and made a way, when to her, there seemed to be no way.
So when people try to say that it all comes down to fate, we as Christians need to be the voice that says it all comes down to the love of Jesus. It's a mystery to me how God guides our hearts and minds to make certain decisions that allow his love and care to work. And even though I don't understand it, I believe I saw the divine providence of God at work that night. And you can believe that his providence is at work in and through your life too.
The song says, "Some think it all comes down to fate and circumstaces, life falls somewhere between accident and chance," but if we believe that the God of the universe orders the universe and orders our steps, we know that in reality it's no coincidence."
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