school. She was a woman I had known as a student but I
hadn’t seen for years. She told me about a youth organization
—one I had never heard of before—that worked with high
school students in the area. Within a few months I went to
work for Campus Life. Not only did they give me an
opportunity to write my first book, but before the year was
over, I had met and married my husband (who was my Campus
Life boss).
I’ve had numerous encounters, often with complete
strangers who I believe were messengers of God. I believe they
were assigned to me by Him to get my attention at critical
junctures in my life. They directed my steps, opened doors,
spoke truth to me, or gave me an opportunity to fulfill a mission
in my life for Him.
I firmly believe that God regularly uses messengers in our
lives to give us time-sensitive, godly counsel that agrees with
the written Word of God.
In fact, I often find myself in the messenger mode. I regularly
look for a stranger to help, someone with whom to share the
story of how God came into my life. I feel it is my life’s purpose
to find those who need God—especially those who are on the
fringes of life for any variety of reasons. I am compelled to
connect them to the God who loves and forgives them, just as
that janitor so long ago did for me.
One of my favorite passages in the Bible challenges me to be
God’s messenger on any day, at any time. Second Corinthians
5:19–20 (NLT) reads:
For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer
counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful
message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is