a God-wink

When God Winks is the name of a book I’ve not read. Though the concept of "Godwinks" ("those amazing little coincidences that happen to you, are really divine signposts to help you navigate your way to perfect love" - Squire Rushnell) has undertones of New Age thought, I believe there is more than a little truth to the fact that God often gives us subtle reminders that He is involved in the mundane minutiae of our days.

In my morning quiet time I am working, these days, through Joyce Meyer’s Battlefield of the Mind book and study guide. At the moment I’m in the chapter "The Mind of Christ." It’s all good stuff, firmly foundationed in Scripture which, I’m discovering, is something I want to soak my mind in more and more. One of the ways I’m trying to do that is by memorizing it.

Out of the study yesterday, I printed the words from Romans 8: 35-39 on a file card and began committing it to memory: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness or peril or sword?....Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us...." These seem like good verses to mull over during these days, addressing as they do, the fact that God’s love transcends the gamut of human experience from distress to sword (though with our human understanding of love, we often ask, ‘How can it be love when it feels so bad?’)

Yesterday evening we went to hear Michael Card in concert. He shared the stage with Dave Hunt, the president of WorldServe, and with Pastor Elisha – a Vietnamese pastor who has been a part of the rapid multiplication of underground churches in Vietnam (almost doubling in numbers over the past year from just over 1000 to over 2000 churches). As you can imagine, the singing was fabulous and the stories about what’s happening in Vietnam – the people coming to Christ and the healings and miracles – were simply incredible.

I went home with a couple of new Michael Card CDs and some free literature from the WorldServe table. One of those was a booklet called Joy Over the Moon, which has a week’s worth of devotions with "Lessons of enduring hope from our Chinese brothers and sisters" (cover blurb).

I read the first devotional: "Day One: Consume the Word" last night before bed. It begins:

In 1987, Ling became a church planter. He was 13. Ling was mentored by an older pastor (in his 20s). In the first three years of their ministry, this dynamic duo planted 240 churches. Their secret? Every morning they arose early, lit a candle, and then prayed and studied Scripture until the candle burned out. They spent the rest of the day sharing Jesus everywhere they went. In the evening, they lit another candle, and prayed and studied again. Today Ling is responsible for almost one million believers in unregistered house churches in China...

The piece goes on to tell about how these Chinese Christians love the Bible, how they weep when they get their own copy, and write it out by hand to give it to others. They also memorize it: "It is not uncommon for a believer to memorize all four Gospels and many other books in the New Testament."

The day one devotional ended:

The promises in God’s Word give persecuted believers an enduring hope and optimism that allows them to stand for Christ no matter what the circumstances. Paul reminds is in Romans that no matter how bad things get, Christ’s love is always with us. Consume this verse and rest in its assurance:

And then– you guessed it – the verse which I had written on a card this very morning, is quoted:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?..."

I’m not sure that God is saying to me with this. All I know is, when I saw the very verse I had begun to memorize yesterday morning printed out again in the devotional that I just happened to pick up and decide to read before bed, I got the very distinct feeling God was winking at me. Telling me, I see you. And I’m involved in every detail of your life.

Has God winked at you lately? I’d love to hear about it.