Have you ever set out on a journey, and discovered that it was longer than you expected? That is certainly the case for me, with this series of posts on the important subject of "Guidance" in our individual lives. However, the end is in sight and, in this final post in the series, I want to consider the experience of guidance.
Dr W.E.Sangster, the well-known Methodist preacher, and prolific author, of the 20th century, shares a story that, one morning, during his personal devotions, he had a deep urge to call on a certain lady member of his congregation. He resisted the thought since it did not fit in with his plans for the day. "I knew no reason why I should go to her home". he writes. "To go in that direction would mean one call, to go the way I had planned would mean a dozen. Yet her name dinned in my ears and I went. And the memory of that visit will always be sweet to me. ............ 'Do come in', she said and, when I sat down, she added, 'Fancy you remembering'." But Dr Sangster had remembered nothing - and was honest enough to say so! The woman reminded him: "It was a year ago, today," she said, "that you buried my husband. I have been dreading this day, and got up this morning, fearfully overwrought and feeling that I must run away from the house, and every stabbing memory. But, as I tried to pray, God came very near and seemed to urge me to wait within the home. Somehow, I knew that He would send me a word of comfort."
How assured Dr Sangster was that God had guided him to that home. How wonderful to know that God cared enough for that widow, to send Dr Sangster to her.
And how many different stories of clear guidance may be told! The Bible, itself, abounds in them: Abraham's servant seeking a wife for Isaac; Samuel, sent to anoint a new king of Israel; Philip and the Ethiopian; Peter and Cornelius; Ananias and Saul; to name but a few.
And in our own experience, how many of us can look back and see the hand of God, guiding and directing us, even when we only realise it with the 20:20 vision of hindsight?! I recall, all too well, such a situation with my own younger daughter. The company for which she worked had developed financial problems and was looking for those who would accept voluntary redundancy. She offered - but was turned down as, she was informed, no-one else in Scotland knew her job! With help from a colleague, she re-applied and, this time her request was accepted, but on the condition that she would train someone in England to deal with her responsibilities.
This entailed her working in England for some six weeks, with the weekends at home. After a couple of weeks, she went into the restaurant of her accommodation to be greeted by name. The person was the manager of a small company to which her company sometimes sub-contracted work, and whom she knew well. Having found out why she was there, and that she would soon be unemployed, he immediately offered her a job in his company. However, he wanted her to start on the following Monday! She explained the terms of her VR but was informed that she should leave that up to him, as he had the ear of the "top people"! He arranged for her release, and she started work on that Monday!
She had been there a few weeks when she spoke with me, explaining that this company had a special voluntary Health Insurance Scheme into which both employees, and the company, paid. Should she join? She was in excellent health, but I pointed out that one never knew what was around the corner, and advised her to sign up. It was only weeks later that she was diagnosed with breast cancer! To cut the long story short, the Insurance Company paid for her to receive private treatment and, by the time she was even given a date for a referral to her local hospital, she had already been operated on, and was half-way through the subsequent chemotherapy treatment! The cancer turned out to be a particularly aggressive one and, after her chemo was completed - about November, if I recall correctly - her Oncologist informed her that, if she had not been treated in time, she would not have seen Christmas!
We are convinced that she only got that job so that she would receive that private treatment. By the way, this is no criticism of the NHS! However, they are so snowed-under that waiting times can be very lengthy - sometime fatally so! As we look back, we are so grateful that Almighty God was guiding in all of that. Experience is, indeed, the ultimate proof of God's guidance - I know that He guides, because I have experienced His guidance.
Reginald White, a former Principal of the Baptist Theological College, in Glasgow writes, in one of his books: "In the last resort, a man knows the Gospel is true by his experience of its power within himself." The same, we may say, is true of God's guidance - a guidance that is promised; that is given; which may be tested; and which is experienced as the loving care of our great and gracious God.
It is there for all - but those who are in His family know it best. Does that include you?
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