Finding God's Presence in Life's Worst Moments

Chris Singleton had just finished a Summer League

baseball game on June 17, 2015, when his phone rang. He was 18,

had just wrapped up his freshman year at Charleston Southern

University, where he played outfield, and had recently

recommitted his life to Christ. His baseball future looked

promising. Then he got the call. His mother, Charonda Coleman

Singleton, had been at a Bible study at Mother Emanuel AME

Church in Charleston, South Carolina. A gunman had opened

fire. Nine people were dead. His mother was one of them. Chris

drove to the church. He stood outside and absorbed what he was

being told. The life he'd been living that morning was already

gone. Two days later, standing in that church, he stood in

front of news cameras and said five words that stopped the

country. Love is stronger than hate. We'll come back to what

that looked like over the years that followed. But first...

Welcome to Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. I'm Bart LeJay. Over

the years in pastoral ministry, I've sat with people whose lives

were divided by a single moment. A phone call or a diagnosis. A

conversation that ended something. Some of them drew

closer to God through it. Others pulled away. What I've noticed

is that the ones who drew closer weren't spared the grief. They

just found something in the grief that the ones who pulled

away hadn't found yet. That's what today's episode is about.

Most of have a day we can name. Before it and after it. Life

looked different. The world on the other side of that day felt

like unfamiliar territory because it was. You were in a

place you hadn't planned to be. Living a life that didn't look

like the one you'd been building. Here's what chapter 1 verses 16

and 17 says. The words Ruth spoke to Naomi as they stood at

the border of a country Ruth had never lived in. But Ruth replied,

Don't ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I

will go. Wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be

my people. And your God will be my God. Wherever you die, I will

die. And there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me severely

if I allow anything but death to separate us. Ruth had lost her

husband. Her sister-in-law had turned back. Every path she

could see led somewhere unfamiliar, and she chose the

most unfamiliar one of all. She followed her mother-in-law to a

country she didn't know under a God she was still learning to

trust. What she found when she got there was that God's

faithfulness had preceded her. He was already in the field.

Boaz's workers had already been instructed to leave grain behind

for her. The provision was in place before Ruth knew she

needed it. And that's the pattern. The after isn't empty.

You think it will be when you're standing at the border of it.

You think you're crossing into territory where nothing has been

prepared, but God was in your after before you even got there.

He's been in every after you've ever walked through, whether you

recognized it at the time or not. I've watched people face the

same dividing line moment and go in completely different

directions. Some move toward God and others move away. And the

ones who move away almost always do it because they assume the

after is empty. That God was in the before and the before is

gone. That assumption is something we need to look at.

The book of Ruth is a very short book and its ending is easy to

skip past if you're not paying attention. Ruth, the widow from

Moab who crossed into unfamiliar territory with nothing but her

commitment to Naomi and her faith in Naomi's God, became the

great grandmother of David, which means she's in the lineage

of Jesus. She had no way of knowing that when she stood at

that border. She just took the next step and God was already in

the territory she was stepping into. Now, let's get back to

Chris's story. In the days after his mother's murder, Chris

Singleton said something that explained the forgiveness nobody

could figure out. He said, Never in a million years could you

tell me that I would forgive the man who murdered my mother the

day after, or two days after. This is why I know that God is

real, because it had to be God on my heart. The phone call on

June 17th divided his life into before and after. He went on to

play minor league baseball for the Chicago Cubs, then walked

away from baseball entirely to become a speaker and author. His

message has stayed the same across all of it. Love is

stronger than hate. That message came to him on the worst day of

his life from a God who was already present in the territory

Chris was crossing into before he even knew where he was going.

That's what Ruth discovered also. She left for an unfamiliar

country with nothing but her commitment to Naomi and her

faith in Naomi's God. What she found when she got there was

that God's faithfulness had preceded her, because he was

already in the field, and if you're somewhere you didn't plan

to be, he's already in yours. Here's today's challenge. Name

the day. The before and the after day in your life that

changed things. Then, ask God one question about What have you

already placed in this after that I haven't seen yet? You

don't need to answer that question yourself. You just need

to ask it, and then pay attention to what you find in

the days ahead. Lord, you see the people whose lives have been

divided by a day they didn't choose. You were in the before,

and you're in the after. Let them find what you've already

placed there, the way Ruth found grain in a field she'd never,

ever walked before. In Jesus' name, amen. If Daily Devotions

for Busy Lives has encouraged you, would you take a minute and

leave a rating and review? It helps more people find these

devotions, and it only takes a moment. I'd be so grateful. The

link is in the show notes. Thanks for joining me on Daily

Devotions for Busy Lives. Remember, the after isn't empty.

God was there before you ever arrived. Come back next time for

more encouragement to help you live grounded in God's truth.

Until then, God bless, and have a great day.