At a recent writer’s conference several of the presenters talked about divine appointments. The context related to appointments with literary agents or book publishers. Several in the faculty also mentioned the necessity of prayer, humility, and connections for aspiring authors.
I came away from the conference encouraged and challenged. And I was able to make connections, network, and experience beneficial conversations. I believe I did have some “divine appointments” at the writer’s conference. At the very least, I left encouraged and motivated to keep writing and growing.
Looking back on those comments, I’ve been struck by an obvious intersection regarding divine appointments and personal connections. God does orchestrate divine opportunities and appointments, but even so we must be attentive in order to notice and experience them.
Sometimes God’s appointments are surprising and come uninvited. C.S. Lewis described his conversion in language affirming this point.
You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms.
– C. S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy
How can we be attentive in order to notice and experience God’s divine appointments. Here are four principles that will help us be ready for God’s sovereign appointments in our lives.
God is always working. He is relentless. Lewis recognized God’s “unrelenting approach” in his conversion. Henry Blackaby in his work Experiencing God suggested that we ought to join God where he is working. As believers, we should realize that God is always at work around us. This mindset will help us anticipate opportunities that God is orchestrating.
We don’t always desire what God does. Sometimes our desires are in conflict with God. Like Lewis above, there are times where God inserts himself into our lives in unexpected or uninvited ways. The past couple of years of my life as a caregiver for my dad illustrate this. I was speaking recently with a wife who is caring for her husband with dementia and other health issues. She didn’t ask for that responsibility and may not have wanted what God desired for her marriage in this moment. It is often in the tensions of uninvited situations that God makes himself known to us. One caregiver said it this way, “In caregiving, I learned things about myself that I didn’t want to know.” She was right. But also in caregiving (and many other uninvited circumstances), I have learned things about God that I would never have known otherwise. Psalm 23:4 is helpful here. The Good Shepherd is still leading his sheep as they walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
We must respond with humility when God’s sovereign opportunities collide with our lives. Even though Lewis wasn’t looking for God, he bent his knees as a “most reluctant convert.” But he was converted. He received God’s intervention with humility. Accepting that God is sovereign, always at work, and intervening in our lives helps us respond in humility and submission even when we don’t want what God may desire in our lives. Living in light of God’s sovereignty means living with a bent toward God’s action in our lives.
Make our own appointments. By this I mean we ought to act and engage with others as if each conversation is a divine appointment. This principle flows logically from the three previous ones. I’m not suggesting something like “making our own luck” as a means of self-help. Nor do I mean the concept of “manifesting.” Those are human-centered concepts. Rather, when we realize God is always working, we do two specific things to make our own appointments. First, we open our eyes to observe the ways God is working around us. We notice. Second, we initiate conversations and actions to increase our intersections with God’s divine appointments. We engage.
Let me illustrate it this way. The other week, several of us from Wilkesboro Baptist traveled to the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. When we arrived, we had several options for dinner. We could have visited with fellow NC Baptists at an event, but instead we chose a restaurant from several other options. The restaurant had a 20 minute delay. So we waited. We even waited an additional 10 minutes at the table before our waitress arrived. All this happened after a full day of driving. In many ways, everything up to that point appeared random, even our choice of restaurant. When our waitress took our order, I did what I typically do and said to her, “We’re about to pray. Is there anything we can pray for you about?”
At that questioned, she teared up and couldn’t speak. After several moments, she walked away emotional. We weren’t sure what was going on. When she returned more composed, she confessed the following, “God and I have not been on good terms lately. I did something that has put distance between us, and I’ve been struggling.” We were able to pray for her, and encourage her to receive God’s mercy and forgiveness. Through the rest of our meal, she seemed visibly comforted. I’m absolutely convinced God sent us to meet that waitress for a divine appointment.
When looking back, the apparent randomness of the situation (travel, choice of restaurant, delay at the restaurant, and even the question I asked) is striking. But it was obvious God was working. Our waitress needed a reminder that God had not abandoned her. So God sent some Baptists from North Carolina to meet a young lady from Florida so she could collide with his grace.
Photo by Blessing Ri on Unsplash