It’s a story I’ve told a hundred times, maybe more. I was young and broke, with an unpaid emergency room bill hanging over my head. The hospital had just called, threatening to send the charges to a collection agency. I was sitting on the floor, in tears, begging God for an answer, when the phone rang again. It was a friend and co-worker, calling to finalize plans for a girls’ night out.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, hearing the shake in my voice and the too-loud sniff.

I told her.

“How much do you owe?” I told her.

“Oh, I’ve got that. I’ll give it to you, and you can just pay me back.” God answered my prayer in an instant of grace.

But, in truth, in order to answer that prayer, God had to have set in motion a whole series of events leading up to that instant. God led [Read more…]