Hearing God in the Unexpected

When I think of all the times I hear God speaking in my life-it’s often in the most unexpected ways. It’s when I least expect it and when things don’t go my way. When I was a high school student, I had transferred schools my senior year to play for the best basketball coach in Orange County. My hope was to have a successful senior year and hopefully get a college scholarship somewhere. I had it all planned out. I sacrificed leaving my old school where I was known to a school of knowing absolutely no one. It meant leaving my childhood friends all for the sake of chasing a dream. And I expected God to honor my great sacrifices.

So I geared up for my first summer basketball tournament with my new high school team. I was super excited for that summer because it was probably the most important time to be noticed and seen by college recruiters. I had already spoken with several college coaches and they were planning on personally watching and following me during that summer. As I stepped onto the court that day, I remember thinking, “All my hard work will finally pay off!” And then I heard God speaking to me…

I was defending a girl, stole the ball, dribbled down the court, went to dunk it (I mean lay it up), and I landed on the defenders foot. My ankle rolled over and I went down to the floor. Just then, I knew I had hurt myself pretty bad (I ended up tearing all the ligaments in my ankle). I started to cry because I realized that I may not be able to play during that summer and maybe not get noticed by college recruiters. As I am lying on the floor in pain, I see my new coach standing over me. He knells down, and whispers in my ear, “Kelsi, you will need to memorize James chapter 1 for me by next week!” My coach knew I was a Christian and he knew I had made sacrifices and plans all for the sake of my college future. But this was his way of telling me that God is bigger than my plans. It was then that I realized that God was using this opportunity to teach me and to speak to me. It was like He was telling me to trust Him in all circumstances and to trust Him with my future. The ironic part was that I had Jeremiah 29:11 on my letter-man jacket…“For I know that plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and future.”

It was neat to hear God speaking to me (through me coach) that I wasn’t living out this scripture in my life. I claimed that I trusted God with my life and my future, but I already had all my life plans laid out and I didn’t want God to mess with them. How often do we do that? The amazing thing is that God speaks to us during those unexpected circumstances and trials in our life and uses them to draw us closer to Him.