Autopilot

Have you ever stopped in the middle of the things you were doing and realized that you were stuck on autopilot?

You know what I mean. The alarm goes off at 5:00 a.m. You stumble to the coffee pot, get dressed, get the kids ready for school, make and eat breakfast, fight the morning traffic, work all day in your cubicle, see your co-workers, go home, make dinner, watch TV, go to bed—and the next day you hit the repeat button. Sure, some things may differ a bit from day to day, but by and large you could probably traverse your daily routine without even thinking about what you’re doing.

People often say that they want change in their lives, but for all our alleged desire for change, what happens when something messes up our routine? What happens when things don’t go exactly the way we expect or want them to?

I recently had such an experience. It had been a long day, and I had gone to a restaurant with my friends. I just wanted to get my food and relax. The restaurant, however, was packed. Once we were seated, our waitress had so many patrons that she could barely keep up with them all. When my order didn’t arrive exactly as I had placed it, I got a bit upset that she hadn’t been paying more attention to me and my selfish “needs.”

At this point one of my friends noticed that our waitress needed prayer for healing. He asked her if she wanted prayer, and she responded, “I can always use prayer.” So my friend said, “Riley, why don’t you pray for her?”

Now I was having a temper tantrum in the restaurant that day. I didn’t want to pray for our waitress. But I did it anyway. I grabbed the woman’s hand and prayed that the Lord would remove any sickness in her body.

Not only was our waitress healed, but she prayed then and there to rededicate her life to the Lord. I had almost missed the opportunity to be a blessing to our waitress that day!

I truly believe that most Christians want to see the lost saved and the sick healed. But at times we get so busy with our own lives that it’s as if we’re stuck on autopilot. We pray for God to give us opportunities to reach out to others around us, but we fail to see the opportunities He gives us because all we see is ourselves.

My prayer for you is that God would give you eyes to see the lost and the hurting on a daily basis. Join me in this prayer: “Lord, give me eyes to see beyond my wants and my needs, and use me to reach the lost and hurting around me. Amen.”