Another title might read: How to know God is listening.
I was sitting in a church van with eleven teenagers and a leader in the passenger seat. We had been working our tails off painting a house for three days. The van smelled like a mix of middle school locker room and Doritos. At some point in the trip, I had switched the radio from the local Christian station to the local party station. Mission trips cause mild insanity which leads to the need for songs that take a person to another place. Some of you know what I’m referring to here. The rest…you just need to volunteer on a youth trip.
Anyway, I shared with the leader sitting on my right that I really believed that music is the thing that kept me from getting into a lot of trouble before I became a Christian. There were times when I would sit in a friends room and we would listen to power ballad / R&B music. We’d laugh, cry, memorize lyrics. For me, music was God preventing grace keeping me from a world of trouble.
Back to the camp.
Later that night, we were up late. I had to tell one student at least seven times to get in the van or we were going to leave a certain place without him. There was something really wrong with the shoes in our dorm room. I thought they might walk out of the place on their own. I overdosed on Oreos. I was mildly delirious and wondering why I didn’t say “no” to the annual junkfest. The next morning, while I was feeling completely exhausted and sorry for myself I asked God, “throw me a bone…please just throw me a bone”. Not sure why I prayed that prayer but I did.
I hopped in the van, turned the key. The radio was on from the day before. The song that started was “End of the Road. By Boys II Men. I had to laugh. Then I cried. I sat in the van by myself singing the entire song out loud and out of key. It was like God had been sitting right there with us the whole time. He’s always known me and knows me still. Why do I forget that God is there for us too? He knows us better than anyone else and provides exactly what we need when we need it. For some, a silly old school song. For others….grace.
Thanks for listening God and for knowing me completely.
