The Patriot Post® · In the Fullness of Time

Time is a funny thing, isn’t it? We never seem to have enough time to do the things we need to do, but we can usually find time to do what we want to do. President Dwight D. Eisenhower called it “the tyranny of the urgent,” which he said “often replaced the important” in our lives.

Anyone else feel like you are running from crisis to crisis?

My family is important, but their needs — especially when my kids were children — were seldom urgent. Nevertheless, during the years I worked with Teen Challenge and we lived with 80-90 other people on a campus, we labored hard to ensure our kids didn’t feel neglected. Raising a family can be challenging.

God created the heavens, oceans, plants, trees, animals, and mankind; male and female He created them in six days. Then He rested on the seventh day. But God was not finished. He saved the best for later:

“But when the fullness of time came, GOD sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law” (Galatians 4:4).

Think about that. In the “fullness of time,” at just the right time, God sent His Son to save us from our sins. Yesterday was Easter, and Christians all over the world celebrated the death and resurrection of Jesus — for one day. As a Christian of many years, I’ve learned to celebrate Jesus every day. My life centers around the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus, my Lord and Savior.

As I grow older, I’ve reflected many times on my “God moments.” What is a God moment? It’s when everything comes together in a way that you know is not a coincidence. It’s all too perfect to have just happened.

In 1990, 24 years after a major battle I fought in, I found myself sitting across the table from a former North Vietnamese Army colonel. I had fought in the same valley as this man who led a regiment of North Vietnamese soldiers that tried to wipe out my company of Marines.

Now, 24 years later, we just “happened” to be in the same room in Saigon, Vietnam, a city with millions of people.

I just “happened” to be leading a negotiation team for a veterans ministry with these government officials when our trip leader didn’t feel well.

It just so “happened” that I could tell my former enemy, “It was only because of the healing Christ did in my heart that I can say, ‘I love you, and God loves you!’”

When we slow down, taking time to listen to the voice of God and what Scripture calls “that still small voice,” we will be amazed at how many “God moments” we can enjoy. I heard the Lord tell me to return to Vietnam. I felt the prompting of the Lord to go to the meeting for our leader instead of taking the day off.

You’re thinking, That’s just a coincidence! How about another God moment in the same country and same city nine years later? In 1999, after a Category 5 typhoon struck Da Nang, we flew back to Saigon. We had to stop at a pastor’s house to meet a family from his church because a veteran had sent money for them. This was the only church we supported in Saigon.

A family of four rode up on a little motor scooter, and it was obvious that both parents suffered the effects of polio. Our first project when we began work in Vietnam was at Polio Orphanage No. 5 in Saigon. I looked at the father and told my wife, “I know him!” We then learned that the couple grew up in Polio Orphanage No. 5, and they remembered us from 20 year earlier. They were now believers and went to the only church our organization supported.

There are even more examples, but let me challenge you to slow down and take time to remember your own God moments. God is here, working in our lives — always.

Semper Fidelis