When God uses me, it often feels like a mistake. Not that I don’t think that God can use me…but rather, I don’t mean for Him to use me. As a matter of fact, the first thing out of my mouth when I realize that God used me is usually, “Oops.” People sometimes have come up to me and told me, “God really spoke to me through what you said.” And the first thing that I try to do is remember what I said; always grateful, but sometimes confused.
One day I was in church and there was a ministry time when people stood up to receive prayer. The pastor asked for those standing around the people to pray for those who were standing. Reluctant, and a little awkward, I came up beside this person, put my hand on his shoulder, and just started to pray that God would fill that person with His love. All of the sudden, the person that I was praying for fell down flat on his back! People rushed over and I winced back thinking “What have I done!?!?!” Apparently they called what happened as “Being slain in the Spirit.” One of the guys that rushed over, looked at me in my eyes and said, “God’s going to really use you.” The first thing that I thought was, “I hope not!” I thought, “God’s going to use me by slaying people?!?” It scared me to death (no pun intended). It was at least a month before I had the courage to pray for another person, and when I did gain the courage to pray for someone again it was with a silent disclaimer at the end of the prayer, asking: “…And God, please don’t knock this person down.” I’m not saying that I’m pentecostal per se, that’s just what happened and the person (now a friend of mine) is OK, he wasn’t hurt in the “slaying”…and he says that God really used that instance to speak into his life. So, “Praise God”….but…”Oops.”
I think the greatest serendipity is that the sovereign God would work through flawed, weak, and sometimes stupid human beings. That as we are, He calls us to be who we are, so that He can use us (even in our frailty) to reach into a hurting world with His love. Sometimes, God does this without us knowing, and that is the biggest serendipity of all.