I was once in an informal settlement in South Africa doing a home visit with a woman with AIDS. Getting to her place was challenging. There were no roads. And as I walked down the dirt path, I had to be careful as it was an open sewer. The smell in the heat was unbearable. I then worked my way down the path where I reached a river. I had to jump from rock to rock to get across, being careful not fall in as that is where the sewage ran. As I came to the other side of the river, I had to climb up the side of a pretty steep hill.
A mile and a half later I arrived at her small home that was made of pieced-together cardboard and metal. She was not well, but got out of bed to pull up a bucket for me to sit on as she graciously welcomed me into her home. As I sat there with her, I asked her, “So how are you doing?” to which she responded,
“God is good, I can’t complain.”
For all the complaining that I had done in my head as I made my way to her home, I knew . . .this woman was a prophet. What is a prophet? A prophet is one who receives a word from God and shares that word with others, although the people usually don’t want to hear it. It’s a reminder of something that we already know, we just need to hear it again. This woman reminded me that day: God is good, all the time.
God places peculiar prophets in our lives to tell us what we need to hear. Sometimes it’s hard for us to hear God’s prophets — when they don’t look like us or sound like us or tell us what we want to hear. I hope that you will look for the peculiar prophets around you and hear the word of the Lord for you today.
. . . And that’s our Moment of Truth!