The doctor's office in which I work is in a medical plaza next door to an out of business hospital. When we first moved to Birmingham, almost 16 years ago, this hospital was one of the top in town. Now Birmingham is not as big as Atlanta, but we do have several hospitals. Carraway Methodist Medical Center had the emergency department that you wanted when trauma was involved. Several years back some brilliant (that's sarcasm in case it doesn't translate) consulting firm informed the powers that be that they were spending too much money on keeping the Trauma Center open. Now I don't know if that was the first step of the folding of CMMC, but it was one of the biggest. Fast forward to October 2008 and a one hundred year old hospital closes its doors. Hundreds of people are unemployed in a falling economy. Many people would look at that and wonder where God is in these crises. What was He doing when these people lost their jobs?

We are so used to making sure that our lives are perfect. Where did we come up with the idea that when life throws us curve balls, that we must not be doing what God wants us to do or living where God wants us to live. I'm not throwing any stones at any of you, my readers. Oh no, on the contrary, I have been guilty of making these same decisions. He's been spending the last four decades trying to get these weird ideas out of my head. Back to the hospital, with its closing, the company that owns our building has beefed up security so that we who are still there can feel safe. The security guards walk us to our cars in the evening. Monday's guard is Brother Bill. He spent years on the police force for Birmingham. Bro Bill is a pastor whose church has had to decrease his full-time paycheck. All of these things can sound like disasters if you listen with your earthly ears. But if you listen with your spiritual ears, you might hear something entirely different.

He told me of the fact that he has met and prayed for and ministered to people who would never walk through the doors of his church. He and I discussed how God can use things that look like disasters and turn them to His good. Some of my co-workers who don't know the Lord have enjoyed getting to know Bro. Bill. Isn't this what Jesus meant when he told us to take the Good News to the four corners of the earth? The Psalmist tells us how the Shepherd searches high and low to find just one lost lamb. Wouldn't He place a retired policeman, who is now a pastor, in a practically empty medical building just to minister to the few people who are there.

I can't answer the question about why all those people are now out of work. I can't answer any questions about the people who now have to travel farther to reach medical aid. I do know that it can seem hopeless. I also know that each of those people are no stranger to our Lord. He knows them more intimately than they know themselves. And I also know that He has a plan for each and every one of them. And while their lives are not where they want them to be (and they may never be) but they are exactly where He wants them to be. Try not to wait for that perfect moment. Try not to despair because your aren't where you think you should be. Try not to worry that you are surrounded by the unsaved. Whether or not you know it, He is using you just where you are. No matter how you got there.