Divine Randomness

   From John Piper's Don't Waste Your Cancer:  "We waste our cancer if we fail to use it as a means of witness to the truth and glory of Christ.  Christians are never anywhere by divine accident.  There are reasons for why we wind up where we do...so it is with cancer.  This will be an opportunity to bear witness.  Christ is infinitely worthy.  Here is a golden opportunity to show that he is worth more than life.  Don't waste it."  
   I was humbled today by this fact.  I had a non-appointment to go in for lab work sometime today -- the particular time did not matter.  I left the house at 10:12 am (I noticed the timer on the stove as I left), a perfectly random time in a perfectly nondescript day.  After the obligatory waiting room time and the cursory viewing of two or three magazines, I was called back to the extraction room where they took a vial of blood out of me.  No sweat.  When I came out one vial lighter, I saw Nancy.  She is my chemo buddy, and she had her family with her as they were awaiting their Round Three regimen.  She has been having a harder time with the effects of chemo than I have had.  We hugged, encouraged each other, reminded each other of the team we represent, and she was encouraged at a moment when she was scared.  I decided then to walk through the clinic and pray for the random folks there.  Sure enough, one of them was Howie, another older friend who is in for his first round of chemo (even though he has fought this battle before).  We offered each other greetings and I reminded him that God's got this, even though it is frightening.  We laughed and I was able to pick up his spirits a bit.  In doing so, both Nancy and Howie picked up my spirits.  There are reasons why we end up where we do.  Both of these were divine appointments.  Both were meant to happen.  Both had to happen.  God orchestrated them to happen.
   The random time wasn't so random.  The nondescript day wasn't so nondescript.  The non-appointment time wasn't so "non-scheduled."  It all unfolded the way it was supposed to.  We Christians have to make ourselves available to these kind of moments.  Being a part of God's divine appointments is a humbling adventure.  Watch for them.  Follow through.  Even if it is "randomly."