Sometimes, the way God orchestrates my life amazes me. I think about my time in marching and symphonic band, sitting in my chair and learning how to count bars. I was never the best trumpet player, but I enjoyed being a part of an ensemble that could at times make beautiful music.

Little did I know that years later, all that experience counting bars would pay off in a totally unrelated way. As a tech volunteer for my church, I help the church worship by keeping up with the song lyric slides during the worship songs. Part of that involves knowing time signatures and counting bars between the choruses and the verses.

God often uses experiences like that, along with the different kinds of people you meet, to shape you for a future you probably have no idea right now that’s coming. In God’s economy, nothing is ever wasted. No single encounter with another living soul. Not even the most insignificant moments in your day. Every thing and every one serves a purpose in God’s plan for your life.

The key is teachability. Will you resist or will you learn? Will you defy or will you grow? Once you begin to cultivate a spirit of humility and surrender and learning, then you open yourself up for God to use in ways that you could not even fathom right now. Your mind can’t conceive and your imagination can’t dream up the ways God could act in your life toward yourself and others. That should probably be in the Bible somewhere. Oh wait . . .

Lord, help me to pay attention to all the little details of my daily life. Help me to remember that all the boring and mundane is preparing me for a future that only You can see. Amen.