The right place at the right time. Daily Devotional, November 5th, 2009

Daily Bible Reading: 2 Chronicles 34, Hosea 2, Acts 16-17

I applied to 5 different colleges. I wasn’t one of those people who knew exactly where I wanted to go, so I decided to lay my options out on the table (adding up the application fees, it turned out to be a dumb idea!) I got accepted into four of those and laid all of the informational folders out in front of me. One was in Washington because that is where all my friends were going. Two were in San Diego, because...it’s San Diego! The last one was in a small town in Oregon and it would probably be the first one I would toss out of the mix.

It wasn’t the most rational way of choosing, but over the process of time I realized there was only one that felt right. I desperately wanted to be in sunny San Diego, or with my friends in a new place...but that little folder with the simple tree on it with the word "Linfield"written in purple kept my attention. There was something about that folder that felt right, and something about that campus that felt right. I couldn’t put my finger on it...but even as someone who wasn’t following Christ at the time, I still felt a divine leading.

Linfield College in rainy McMinnville, Oregon would capture four years of my life. Four of the most vital, life-changing and monumental years of my life. It was there that I came to truly know Christ and begin to follow him wholeheartedly. It was there that I met the most amazing man whom I married right after college. We now have two of the most precious kids and are still serving God and enjoying life more and more each day. I often wonder when I look back at how differently my life would have been if I had chosen another place.

Acts 17: 26-28 "And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’

The scripture says that there is a time and a place for our dwelling and it is so that we will come to seek him and find him. Linfield College in rainy McMinnville, Oregon was my time and place. It was in finding Him that I found life (and a super hot, Godly husband)...and ironically, God did eventually call me to San Diego...bummer! :)

I hope that you chose to follow the peace in your heart and that still small voice. It is amazing in that small obedience the large blessings that can come from simply being where you are supposed to be when you are supposed to be there. Trust that if you are following His plan, it is the right place at the right time.


Mel Miller

Tomorrow's reading: 2 Chronicles 35, Hosea 3, Acts 18-19