intentionality: taking a risk

I just finished an amazing book – Chasing Daylight by Erwin McManus.  Over the course of a weekend it has radically shaped the way I view my life.  And my relationship with God.  McManus has a gift of rephrasing the world so you see it in a new way.  But more on that Friday.

Chasing Daylight discusses the times God presents us with unique moments where we are given the opportunity to act on God’s behalf.  McManus calls this “seizing your divine moments.”  As God so often works, I was given a divine moment on the plane back from LA yesterday.  I felt God asking me to give my copy of Chasing Daylight to the woman sitting next to me.  I remember thinking, “yeah right, I just spent 10 hours reading this book and taking notes.”  But that excuse didn’t last very long.  So I switched to the ever popular, “but I have plans for this book.”

That’s when it really hit me, God was presenting me with a choice.  I was placed into an opportunity no one else could fill.  I doubt this woman would ever sit next to someone reading Chasing Daylight, and certainly not on her current cross-country journey.  If she was going to get this book, it was going to have to be through me. No one else could do my job for me.

I also knew that I could never look at Chasing Daylight again if I was too afraid to give a book to a stranger.  How could I claim I wanted to seize my divine moments if I couldn’t do this simple task?  So I sucked it up, and decided to give her the book.  I tried to start a conversation about the book.  But she wouldn’t bite.  This wasn’t going to be easy.  Of course I knew all of this.  Somehow I knew all along that I was going to have to turn to her and say, “would you like this book?”

Time was running out.  I could hear God saying “go! act!”  But I was still afraid.  Afraid of giving up my book because I wanted it, and afraid of looking like an idiot in front of this woman.  As the wheels of the plane touched down I turned to her and said, “I finished this book, would you like it?”

She looked at the book, and then at me.  When our eyes met I could tell she was thinking “why do I always sit next to the weird ones?”  After a brief explanation of why I was giving her my book, she accepted and said something like, “I could really learn to hear what God wants of me.”

I have no idea if she’ll ever read the book.  Maybe she thinks I’m some idiot or a Bible-thumper.  I don’t know.  But I do know that sharing God’s love is always the right thing.  Even if it’s awkward and embarrassing.  But there’s more than that – I had to intentionally choose to act.  I was hoping God would make things easy for me, but deep down I knew I was going to have to step out boldly and just “do it.”  This was my chance to do something radical. 

Just as we have to choose to believe in God, we also have to choose to act on those beliefs.  It’s not always easy.  In fact I’d say the vast majority of times it’s difficult.  It comes with risk and often sacrifice (even if that sacrifice is just a book).  We need to be intentional in not only choosing God, but in following him.