Divine Appointments
by Barbara T. Marshall

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I was excited as I settled into my aisle seat for the late afternoon flight from Denver to Sacramento.  Ahead of me were four beautiful hours to work on the youth seminar I would be giving in a couple months. It was perfect; the two seats next to me were empty so I could stretch out and focus.   Unfortunately, my idyllic productivity plan was shattered when a very loud, overweight woman boarded the plane and plopped down in the window seat of my row.  I had a feeling I wouldn’t be getting very much work done.

As soon as she sat down, my traveling companion reached out her hand and said, “Hi, I am Judy. What brought you to Denver?”

Shaking her hand, I gave her my name and told her I am an inspirational speaker on my way home after attending a personality seminar in Albuquerque.  I handed her a copy of my speaking biography, hoping that would be the end of our conversation and I could get back on track.

After she read my bio she said, “I used to teach aerobics too. That was before I gained 80 pounds and everything went wrong in my life.” She paused for a moment and then continued,   “As a child I used to go to church, but then I experienced several tragedies. I was abused as a child; my brother’s child, whom I’d raised, was murdered in San Francisco; and then I was date raped.  I left the church and walked away from my faith.  Life has been a struggle ever since.”

As she spoke, I prayed quietly, asking the Lord to give me the right words to share His love with Judy.  I knew I couldn’t do it on my own. I asked Judy if she would like to do the personality profile I’d received at the seminar to see what kind of personality she was. She agreed, eager to get started and get to know herself better.

Twenty-five minutes later she was finished.  As we scored the test and got her results, we discovered that her primary personality is what’s known as a “Popular Sanguine” with “Powerful Choleric” as her secondary personality.  That made a lot of sense; the sadness she felt was because she was not living in her strengths.  Instead, she was allowing herself to wallow in her weaker traits: irresponsible, unreachable, controlling, self-centered, narrow-minded, and bossy.

Her emotional needs were to feel loved, accepted, to have control, and receive respect. She had once conducted an orchestra in San Francisco and had loved that job. Now she was blindly running from job to job, completely unaware of where she belonged.

After a moment, she said something that really surprised me. “Do you believe there is a hell?  I don’t, and I don’t want to.  After years away, I finally went to church two years ago.  During the service the pastor told us to ask the person next to us if they thought they would go to heaven when they died. When I turned to the man next to me, I admitted that I struggled with the existence of hell. He called the pastor over, and in the middle of the service they told me to leave the church. I haven’t been in church since.”

Then Judy asked me if I believed the Bible. I replied, “Yes, I do.  The Bible is fascinating; it has 66 books and 44 authors, and it was written in a period of 1500 years. The Bible was inspired by God. The four personalities you just looked at in your personality profile are even in there.

The personality of each of the authors is very apparent as you read their words.  The gospel of John, for example, focuses on love assurance and the preexistence of the Son of God. The gospel of Luke focuses on the humanity of Christ and equality of mankind.  Mark’s gospel is focused on the servanthood of Christ and it is full of action rather than lengthy discourse. Finally, Matthew is a book of order and discipline and talks about Jesus as being the divine king. It reads like a well-organized teaching manual.”

Judy listened intently to every word I shared and then looked on in wonder as I pulled my Bible out of my bag.  I’m sure she was wondering why it was so big.  I have to admit….I’ve wondered that myself.

Amazingly, when I opened my Bible it fell right to the parable of the good Samaritan. It is a story about a man who was robbed, beaten up, and left to die along the side of the road.  A priest walked by the dying man and pretended he did not exist. A Samaritan man, a group that was despised by other peoples of the day, stopped, pulled out his first aid kit and selflessly administered aid to the victim.  Not only that, but he brought the injured man to the safety of an inn where his wounds could heal.  He not only provided a room for the night, he told the innkeeper to bill him for lodging for as long as it was needed.  In essence, he gave him a blank check.   

I told Judy that the Samaritan was a lot like Jesus.   “Jesus wants to bandage up your pains and heal your hurts with His own first aid kit…the Bible. Judy, Jesus Christ died on the cross for all the things you have done in your life and rose from the dead to give you a future.”  Then I flipped the Bible to John 3:16 and read, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (NIV).

Feeling emboldened, I then asked Judy the million-dollar question, “Do you want to pray with me and accept this gift of a better life?”

Judy grabbed my hand and said: “Yes!” I started praying, “Dear Jesus, Judy has had a hard life, with many tragedies.  Her nephew was murdered, and she was raped and abused as a child.  Lord, she needs you as she is on her journey to a new life and a brand-new job. Lord, she believes in you.”

Judy squeezed my hand, “Yes!”

I continued, “Lord, forgive her for what she has done wrong.  Help her with her needs and come into her heart.  She needs you.” 

When we finished praying I looked up at Judy and saw a tear-stained face that was refreshed and full of joy.  Judy told me that it felt like a yoke had fallen from her shoulders. She was free; she wanted to live in her strengths and no longer in her weaknesses.  Then we hugged and laughed together.  She knew this had been a divine appointment.

And what a God moment it had been.  My desire for productivity had turned into an opportunity to experience an abundant blessing.  Once we understand who we are in Him and how we are all uniquely made, God can use us to help one another.