Face to Face with the Angel of the Lord
Based on Judges 13 Have you ever looked back on a difficult season of your life and realized— God was at work the whole time ? You didn’t see it in real time, but later, you could trace His fingerprints over every detail. I’ve lived through that. When I was preparing to retire from the Navy, I thought I had my next steps all mapped out. We’d bought a home in Tampa, planning to sell it at a profit and move back to Michigan. Job recruiters were calling. Everything looked smooth. Then—everything stopped. The calls stopped. The housing market crashed. The house we thought had plenty of equity suddenly wasn’t worth what we owed. It felt like God slammed the door shut. But in that disappointment, He redirected me. While working at the air base, I enrolled in seminary. A few years later, I joined the staff at our church, and eventually, I became pastor of a small congregation that needed revitalization. What I thought would be a two-year plan turned into fifteen. Only in hindsight did...