For we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  Ephesians 2:10

     Rachel was thirteen when she was diagnosed with leukemia,” writes Shari Rose Shepherd.  “Her parents asked if I would call and encourage her.  What do you say to a thirteen-year-old who has leukemia?  All I knew that I could say was that I would pray for God’s healing for her.  Rachel’s response was quite different from what I expected.” 

     She said, “Shari, I don’t know how much time I have left, so you know those divine appointments you talk about?  Can you pray that I’ll have one every day before I go home to be with the Lord?”  Rachel spent 3 years having divine appointments on her campus.  Her cancer actually gave her a voice.  When she was 16 she told me, “I’ve done what God’s called me to do.  I’m ready to go home to be with the Lord.” 

    “How many 40-year-olds can say that?  Because Rachel had made such an impact on her high school, the principal made buses available to her funeral where her pastor read a letter she had written.  I had the privilege of attending that funeral, and I have never been the same since.  My passion for divine appointments is alive because a 13-year-old with leukemia was determined to keep hers.”

     What could be added to this moving story? We live our lives without much purpose or intention, and here is a 13-year-old girl who, instead of being filled with anger and self-pity, decided that she would do the “works” that God had planned for her in the time she had left.

     I believe that God has divine assignments for each of us, and I believe that we are unable to judge what is important and what isn’t. The best thing we can do is live each moment alert to God’s leading and open to opportunities that may present themselves.

     I pray that you begin to live "on assignment,” aware that God has works planned for you and attentive to those moments when God shows up.

*What if you lived every day looking for divine appointments? How exciting that would be!

God, I’m inspired and rebuked by this story of a thirteen-year-old girl who took her walk with You and her testimony for You way more seriously than I do. I don’t need cancer to give me a voice. You have given me a voice already. May I use it today to bless, to encourage, to speak words of life and hope.


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