A Luke 21 Moment
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada with a really fun story.
Um, I drove to the supermarket the other day with my friend, Judy, and we pulled up into a handicap space. And opposite us was a woman shuffling painfully and pulling an oxygen tank (she had on a little mask; she obviously had bad lungs). We waited to see if she needed help getting into her car, but the bag boy was by her side. So I went ahead into the market, but I glanced over my shoulder and I saw Judy walking toward the woman’s open car door—I figured that Judy had gone to help the sick woman close it. Well, they started talking, and so I decided to go back over. Well, there was this woman in the driver’s seat with the oxygen tank, smoking a cigarette. Oh, she assured us she had turned off the oxygen, but still! I mean Judy asked her right then and there if she were a Christian because, “Ma’am, you are not long for this life, you’d better be sure you know where you’re going!” I mean, smoking a cigarette with oxygen! Well, we ended up giving her a Joni book and, standing there by her opened car door; I prayed for her. After a few minutes, we headed on toward the market.
Well, we weren’t inside that market 10 minutes when, by the meat counter, I ran into my friend Robin whose 21-year-old daughter just had a lung transplant. Her daughter has had cystic fibrosis all her young life and doctors had given her just months to live. And so, at the young age of 21, she decided to go ahead for a lung transplant. But Robin was nearly in tears, saying, “Joni, my daughter’s new lungs are leaking, and she may have to have another surgery. She is in so much pain, she’s feeling so demoralized!”
Now, can you see the irony in of all this? Just minutes earlier we had encountered a woman who could’ve cared less about her lungs, who, in fact, was smoking her fragile, diseased lungs to death. And then, just minutes later, we run into the mother of a young girl who is fighting for her lungs, struggling to hold onto them, praying and hoping that they will last! Well, I immediately told Robin about the woman we met in the handicapped parking space outside. And we were all struck with the irony! This was obviously one of those strange divine appointment; one of those uncanny Luke Chapter 21 verse 36 moments where God tells us to, “Watch ye therefore, and pray always…” Well, we definitely felt the call to pray right there in front of the meat counter. And that’s where Judy and Robin and I bowed our heads and prayed. We prayed not just for Robin’s daughter, but for the woman outside in that car with her cigarettes and oxygen tank. And I’ve continued to pray virtually every day not only for Robin’s daughter, but for the salvation of that woman on oxygen.
This day you will encounter many Luke 21 moments, unusual opportunities to ‘watch ye therefore,’ and pray over odd situations that you come across. So look around and be observant, be mindful of the people and circumstances that are simply begging for you to pray. God has His eye on those people and those situations, and He wants to powerfully move through your prayers. So watch ye therefore. Be on the lookout. No matter where you are; in a supermarket parking lot or in front of the meat counter or at work by the elevator or in a college dorm, by the entrance to the dry cleaners or in front of the school. Just watch ye therefore, because there are things, and people, and ironies, and needy situations over which God would have you to pray. So keep your eyes open for those today. And hey, if you need more inspiration, you just have to go to my blog today at joniandfriends.org. Again, that’s my blog at joniandfriends.org.
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Joni and Friends Blog
For the past 40 years, it has been our mission to present the hope of the Gospel to people affected by disability and their families through our programs and outreaches around the world.
