My husband Todd has taken blood pressure medicine for many years.  This year as school as been winding down, he has felt like he is going in multiple directions.  In the middle of all his busyness, he realized that he ran out of his blood pressure medicine.   He called the pharmacy to renew his order. 

Then he went on with his activities…what he was going to do in art class…when he could schedule the senior single dinner…oh yes, when was his father being released from the hospital… and other various thoughts that were putting him on overdrive.

Then he went to pick up his prescription. “No,” they told him at the pharmacy, “you’ve been denied.”

“Denied!” he said with a tad too much irritation.  “How can I be denied?”

“It says that you’ll have to see your doctor first,” they told him.

Todd was frustrated.  He didn’t have time for this.  “Why would I have to see my doctor?  I’ve been on this blood pressure medicine for years!  This is nothing new.  I should be able to get this without going in.”

The pharmacy couldn’t help him.  He would just have to go in.  After fourteen surgeries, a few hospital stays, and other appointments, Todd usually has a way to talk to the medical community and get whatever he thinks he needs.  Not this time.  

He was impatient.  He had already taken several days off of work for his dad’s surgeries and appointments the last few months.  He was not wanting one more time in a waiting room.  Waiting.  When he could be doing something else.

He didn’t understand why he couldn’t just call in his prescription.  He had tried to go to the portal instead of coming in person, but that hadn’t helped.  

So, he went to the doctor’s appointment.

As soon as he walked into the building, he saw Tammy (not her real name). We’ve known her for years.  She’s been on drugs most of her adult life, and probably even before that.  The last time she got out of jail, she wanted to do something better with her life and came to church.  That was the last time Todd had seen her.

When Tammy looked and saw Todd, all she could think about was God and church.  That’s what he represented to her in her life. 

They stood and talked about church for a while.  “Come back to church, Tammy,” Todd encouraged her.  Tammy looked so wistful.  So broken.  Life has been rough, and she’s in a bad place.

Finally, it was time for Todd to leave.  He had seen the doctor, and he had his prescription renewed. 

He stood in church that night and told us all that he was ashamed.  He felt like he had gotten spanked.  He had gotten so focused on his schedule and his prescription, that he forgot that God is in charge. 

The whole thing was out of his control…and in God’s.  God had a purpose all along, and Todd said that he needed to calm down.  He felt like he had ranted to those around.  God had made a divine appointment, and he had missed the whole point.  It hadn’t been about his medicine.  That was the excuse to get him in the same doctor’s office with Tammy. 

I remember the story that Harmon Schmelzenbach told about the pastors from Mozambique who had determined to go to a preachers convention miles away.  They knew they would have to travel at night and sleep in the day to avoid being caught by the police and forced into a labor gang. 

However, after a couple of nights of traveling, they were caught.  The police put them in a group of those who had been detained also.  For a moment, the pastors were taken aback.  Many times, pastors would be put in the forced labor gangs, and their churches and families would not hear from them for years.

The pastors did the only thing they knew to do…they dropped to their knees and prayed to the top of their lungs.  The police were alarmed and wanted to know what they were doing.  To answer the questions, the pastors cut loose to preaching. 

Before the day was out, a couple of the policemen had gotten saved.  When their supervisor came, they were all down praying in the sand that God would release the pastors so that they could go to their meeting!  Miraculously, the supervisor agreed. 

When the pastors said they were lost, the supervisor told them that the mission station where the services were to begin was just up the road.  They had been traveling toward it all day!  He told one of the policemen to escort them there!

The sentence that always stood out to me was that God had allowed that situation to happen for a reason “and they had responded just like He knew that they would.”

Wow!  Can God trust me in difficult situations because He knows that I will respond exactly like He wants?  That He can set up a circumstance and KNOW that I will be the pawn on His chessboard? 

God help me!  Do with me whatever You want.  I’m willing to go to your waiting room!

You schedule my appointments.