“I’m Not the Woman for You”
At the age of thirty, I was divorced from my first wife, living in Tucson, working as a flight instructor, and living with a woman I worked with. We actually had a very good relationship, but then “out of the blue” she told me that she was not the woman for me, and asked me to move out. No anger, no accusations, but very firm that she was not the woman for me.
Starting My Search
I am the type of person who needs to carefully check all the alternatives, so I got the Sunday paper and searched through all the apartments for rent in Tucson. Being a flight instructor is long hours, low pay and no benefits, so I was definitely looking at the low end of the market. After I had cut out all the possible apartments, I organized them by different areas of the city, pasted them on a sheet of paper, and then set off to visit them all. I planned to narrow down my search before calling landlords to set up an appointment to visit the ones I liked the best.
Mountain Views?
Tucson is surrounded by mountains, and in the ads, everything was said to have a mountain view. The first apartment I visited was not at all appropriate, especially considering I would have my two children with me regularly. However, I was still curious how this location in downtown Tucson could advertise a mountain view. Finally, I noticed that at just the right angle it was possible to see a tiny sliver of a mountain between two buildings. So much for the mountain views!
A Possibility
The third location I visited seemed to have some possibilities. It was a single-story triplex, across a driveway from a similar duplex. It was not the best area of town, but not too bad, and there was a small empty area at the end of the building where the kids could play. As I was about to leave, the landlady pulled up. Someone else had made an appointment to look at the unit, so I got to see the inside, which was quite nice considering the area. The young woman who had made the appointment showed up and also liked it, but was worried because it had air conditioning, which is much more expensive than the evaporative coolers that are common in Tucson.
"Call Now!"
That didn’t worry me, but I had to finish my list before I made a decision, so I set off to visit the apartments located on the east side of Tucson. I was driving east on Broadway when suddenly a voice told me to “call the landlady now!” I was not used to getting messages from God, but the voice was so insistent that I pulled into a convenience store parking lot and used the pay phone to call the landlady to get her address. It was not far from where I was, so it only took a few minutes to get there. I was writing out the check for the deposit and first month’s rent when the other woman called to say she wanted to rent it. If I had not immediately obeyed that command, the rest of my life would have been very different.
New Neighbor
My next-door neighbor was a single woman named Cheryl. She was quite a bit older than me with two teenage children. We became friends and did things like going square dancing together. Then one Sunday she invited me to go to church with her. While I was not at all active in my faith, I had nothing against churches and was curious to see what it was like, so I agreed to go.
The Narrow Gate
It was a large Baptist church, with over 1,000 people at the service. When it came time for the sermon, the message “just happened to be” on gate-leaners—referring to the command in Matthew 7:13 to “enter through the narrow gate.” The pastor described gate-leaners as people who walk up to the gate and watch other people going through the gate, but never actual go through the gate themselves. That was me all the way. Despite the lack of any spirituality in my upbringing, I was a spiritual person. I had enjoyed the Episcopalian communion service, and even after I went to college and stopped going to church, I still often thought about God. However, I had my own relationship with God and didn’t want anyone telling me what I had to do to be a Christian.
“You Don’t Have to Come up Here with Me!”
At that moment I went through the narrow gate and gave my life to Jesus Christ. But that was not the last surprise God had planned for me that day. At the end of every Baptist service, the pastor invites anyone who has made a spiritual decision to come forward as the congregation sings songs like Will You Come? and I Surrender All. I was standing there so afraid to go forward that my fingers were turning white because I was squeezing so tightly on the pew in front of me. Suddenly Cheryl, who was sitting next to the aisle, got up and went forward. I had no idea what was going on, but without any hesitation I got up and followed her, standing behind her as she spoke with the pastor. It turned out she had recently given her life to Christ, and went forward to say she wanted to be baptized.
The pastor finished talking with Cheryl, looked up at me and said to her, “Is he with you?” This short blond woman turned around, looked up at me with her hands on her hips, and said in a loud voice in front of 1,000 people, “You don’t have to come up here with me, Jay!” Everyone had a good laugh, and then celebrated my new relationship with Jesus Christ.
Coincidences or Godcidences?
Let’s take a look at the miraculous chain of events that occurred:
- Being told to move out.
- Arriving at the apartment exactly when the owner was there for someone else.
- Instantly obeying the command to call the owner.
- Getting there just in time to write the check before the other person called.
- Getting to know and be friends with my neighbor Cheryl.
- Cheryl inviting me to church on the very day a sermon was preached that would have a strong impact on me.
- Cheryl going forward that same Sunday.
This was the first of many instances in my life when everything worked out so perfectly, often with split second timing, that it would not have been possible if God was not orchestrating the whole thing. It becomes even more incredible when I add up all the similar situations in which that type of thing happened. All this was on top of the first thirty years of my life that brought me to the point that I was ready to follow Christ, but it was only the beginning of the most amazing year of my life.
At the age of thirty, I was divorced from my first wife, living in Tucson, working as a flight instructor, and living with a woman I worked with. We actually had a very good relationship, but then “out of the blue” she told me that she was not the woman for me, and asked me to move out. No anger, no accusations, but very firm that she was not the woman for me.
Starting My Search
I am the type of person who needs to carefully check all the alternatives, so I got the Sunday paper and searched through all the apartments for rent in Tucson. Being a flight instructor is long hours, low pay and no benefits, so I was definitely looking at the low end of the market. After I had cut out all the possible apartments, I organized them by different areas of the city, pasted them on a sheet of paper, and then set off to visit them all. I planned to narrow down my search before calling landlords to set up an appointment to visit the ones I liked the best.
Mountain Views?
Tucson is surrounded by mountains, and in the ads, everything was said to have a mountain view. The first apartment I visited was not at all appropriate, especially considering I would have my two children with me regularly. However, I was still curious how this location in downtown Tucson could advertise a mountain view. Finally, I noticed that at just the right angle it was possible to see a tiny sliver of a mountain between two buildings. So much for the mountain views!
A Possibility
The third location I visited seemed to have some possibilities. It was a single-story triplex, across a driveway from a similar duplex. It was not the best area of town, but not too bad, and there was a small empty area at the end of the building where the kids could play. As I was about to leave, the landlady pulled up. Someone else had made an appointment to look at the unit, so I got to see the inside, which was quite nice considering the area. The young woman who had made the appointment showed up and also liked it, but was worried because it had air conditioning, which is much more expensive than the evaporative coolers that are common in Tucson.
"Call Now!"
That didn’t worry me, but I had to finish my list before I made a decision, so I set off to visit the apartments located on the east side of Tucson. I was driving east on Broadway when suddenly a voice told me to “call the landlady now!” I was not used to getting messages from God, but the voice was so insistent that I pulled into a convenience store parking lot and used the pay phone to call the landlady to get her address. It was not far from where I was, so it only took a few minutes to get there. I was writing out the check for the deposit and first month’s rent when the other woman called to say she wanted to rent it. If I had not immediately obeyed that command, the rest of my life would have been very different.
New Neighbor
My next-door neighbor was a single woman named Cheryl. She was quite a bit older than me with two teenage children. We became friends and did things like going square dancing together. Then one Sunday she invited me to go to church with her. While I was not at all active in my faith, I had nothing against churches and was curious to see what it was like, so I agreed to go.
The Narrow Gate
It was a large Baptist church, with over 1,000 people at the service. When it came time for the sermon, the message “just happened to be” on gate-leaners—referring to the command in Matthew 7:13 to “enter through the narrow gate.” The pastor described gate-leaners as people who walk up to the gate and watch other people going through the gate, but never actual go through the gate themselves. That was me all the way. Despite the lack of any spirituality in my upbringing, I was a spiritual person. I had enjoyed the Episcopalian communion service, and even after I went to college and stopped going to church, I still often thought about God. However, I had my own relationship with God and didn’t want anyone telling me what I had to do to be a Christian.
“You Don’t Have to Come up Here with Me!”
At that moment I went through the narrow gate and gave my life to Jesus Christ. But that was not the last surprise God had planned for me that day. At the end of every Baptist service, the pastor invites anyone who has made a spiritual decision to come forward as the congregation sings songs like Will You Come? and I Surrender All. I was standing there so afraid to go forward that my fingers were turning white because I was squeezing so tightly on the pew in front of me. Suddenly Cheryl, who was sitting next to the aisle, got up and went forward. I had no idea what was going on, but without any hesitation I got up and followed her, standing behind her as she spoke with the pastor. It turned out she had recently given her life to Christ, and went forward to say she wanted to be baptized.
The pastor finished talking with Cheryl, looked up at me and said to her, “Is he with you?” This short blond woman turned around, looked up at me with her hands on her hips, and said in a loud voice in front of 1,000 people, “You don’t have to come up here with me, Jay!” Everyone had a good laugh, and then celebrated my new relationship with Jesus Christ.
Coincidences or Godcidences?
Let’s take a look at the miraculous chain of events that occurred:
- Being told to move out.
- Arriving at the apartment exactly when the owner was there for someone else.
- Instantly obeying the command to call the owner.
- Getting there just in time to write the check before the other person called.
- Getting to know and be friends with my neighbor Cheryl.
- Cheryl inviting me to church on the very day a sermon was preached that would have a strong impact on me.
- Cheryl going forward that same Sunday.
This was the first of many instances in my life when everything worked out so perfectly, often with split second timing, that it would not have been possible if God was not orchestrating the whole thing. It becomes even more incredible when I add up all the similar situations in which that type of thing happened. All this was on top of the first thirty years of my life that brought me to the point that I was ready to follow Christ, but it was only the beginning of the most amazing year of my life.