Some of you, no doubt, have watched the movie The Martian, which stars Matt Damon as an astronaut who gets stranded on Mars. His rescue hangs on a thin thread – a nearly impossible intersection of his spacecraft with this teammates’ ship orbiting the red planet. The tension makes for a great story.
All of our lives are a series of similar hit or miss intersections, but most of them occur without our understanding or awareness of them.
God, though, is not unaware. He is the master of “circumstantial” meetings, and Scripture is full of such stories. One of our favorites is the account of the “short-term missionary” Philip and his meeting with the Ethiopian eunuch. You can read it in Acts 8.
God clearly directs this “intersection,” but Philip is not clued in. He just tries to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, who tells him to head out on the road to Gaza. Philip obeys, and along the way has a “chance” meeting with an Ethiopian convert to Judaism who is heading back home from Jerusalem. The “intersection” of Philip’s life and the eunuch’s life result in the eunuch coming to faith and essentially being one of the first Christ-followers on the African continent. Today, the largest church in nearly every denomination is on that continent! Philip had no idea that his obedience in intersecting the life of this Ethiopian would lead to a life change, and possibly the expansive growth of the kingdom that we see today. He was just following the Spirit’s leading.
What intersections is God leading you to today?
Will you have your eyes open to see them?
We seem to live our lives as if such meetings are random. What if they aren’t?
What if God intended for you to meet the people you do because you are a step along their own path?
Would you act differently knowing that?
Maybe we should assume that each intersection we make with someone has a God component – one of sowing, watering, weeding, or reaping – instead of assuming that they are just chance meetings.
A commitment to be like Jesus in every interaction is probably too much to take on cold-turkey, so work your way into it. Today, try to change the way you see the intersections of your life with others. Awareness is the best first step. As a second step, try to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit and his intentions for those people.
Your next intersection could change the course of your life, the life of the person you meet, and the growth of the kingdom.