In our daily living, should we simply try to make the most of what appears to be life's on-going sequence of random events? Or, is there really a 'grand scheme of things' with far more significance for us than simply a quest to satisfy our own personal ambitions and desires?
Well, as a follower of Jesus there have been times when I've really needed special confirmation from the Lord that I was headed in the right direction. And in one such situation which faced me some years ago a truly rare form of confirmation came in a most unexpected and unusual way...
NEEDING A SIGN
In the late 80's I began designing Christian outreach literature for fun. But by 1990 things began to take off and I needed to know if the Lord was really 'in' this or not. For if not, pressing ahead regardless could have proved not only worthless but could have had serious implications for me and my young
family. After all...
'Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labour in vain'.
Psalm 127:1
So, whilst I prayed for guidance I nevertheless remained well aware of the danger of my wrongly interpreting a particular event as a special confirmatory sign. Thankfully, I didn't have to wait too long for a most unusual answer...
RECEIVING A SIGN
I had produced a special publication for a church in Kilmarnock to help them to get the gospel into every home in the town. But not long after it had been printed, my wife Maureen, along with her mother and our daughters, visited Thailand where her parents had served as missionaries. During this period I returned home from work one day and having never become a 'New Man', and fully aware of my culinary limitations, I visited my local chip shop for a fish supper. To save washing a plate I began eating straight from the paper while watching TV. Suddenly a headline in the paper caught my eye. It referred to Christians in Kilmarnock having commissioned an 'Edinburgh company' to produce what they called a piece of 'publicity material' for distribution throughout the town. I couldn't believe what I was reading and wondered how an Edinburgh newspaper had heard of this project. But when I read the name at the corner of the page I discovered it to be the Kilmarnock Standard.
FOLLOWING A SIGN
I would have been amazed to read anything about this in any newspaper but then the likelihood of all this unfolding in the way it had began to dawn on me. I began to realise how much of a sign from heaven this most probably was. When I considered the number of chip shops in the city; the piles of papers in each of these; the likelihood of a Kilmarnock newspaper being among them; the chances of the article in question being on the page in which my fish supper was wrapped etc etc. Well, all this was certainly significant enough to convince me that the Lord was indeed in this new initiative and that I should proceed with His blessing. Hence TELit was born... and the rest is history!
