By Dan McDonald

I was praying on Monday after my candidate weekend, “God, is this it? Was it just a mountaintop experience, or has my life indeed changed?”

I was back in the valley and I had to drive to a shop in Wisconsin to help install a machine I sold. As I walked in and was greeted by my loyal customer, Larry, I heard God say, “You’re going to witness to him today.”  I said “OK.”

I apologized to Larry for being late and explained that I had just returned from a three-
and-a-half-day retreat.

“What kind of retreat?” He asked.

“A Christian retreat,” I said.

He gave me a disparaging look, to which I replied, “Do you believe in God?” The question elicited an emphatic negative response. So, I thought, “God, how is this going to happen?”

We installed the machine and all went well. At the end of the meeting we met in the office to go over the safety manual. Larry said, “I told my guys don’t be putting their hands in the grinder; safety first!”

I pulled up my pant leg and showed him my prosthesis. “I’m the same way. I lost my foot in my dad’s lawnmower when I was three.”

He looked at me like he wanted to punch in the face. “Are you messing with me?”

“No,” I said, “It’s a prosthesis.”

After a pause, he asked, “Do you know my story?”

I didn’t. He told me that he ran his son over with a lawnmower when the boy was two years old, causing Johnathan to suffer a double, below-the-knee amputation.

I heard God say, “I told you that you were going to witness to this man today.”

We talked. I cried, and we shared stories about the tough experience I and his son had learning to live with prosthetics. “I used to go to church,” he said, “and my son’s accident is part of the reason I stopped going. When this happened, not one person from my church came to visit me.”

God gave me a word and said, “Remind him that’s not My church.”  Then God said, “Why not pray with him?”

To my surprise, he bowed his head and prayed with me.

God is indescribable.  There is no one like Him.  He used me to relate to another human being in a way that only I could. Then he had me share the gospel.  My friends, the day after that third day is only the beginning! God is so much bigger than any challenge we face! Hallelujah!