You just never know. When you least expect it!

That title is so true. I bet there isn’t a person alive who hasn’t said it or whose life isn't shaped by its meaning.

Every day when I open my laptop and look at the desktop articles, I come face to face with so many changes in our world. None of us knows what any new day will hold. We think we do and that we control our lives, but in reality, we don't.

One unexpected challenge, one other person’s decision affecting our life, one national event opening a whole life-changing set of events we can't control. The list goes on and on. You can probably add some of your own personal surprises. Health issues, financial issues, family issues, accidents, slips or falls, careless actions, things that you cannot take back. Or one moment in time that you’ll reap the consequences of for the rest of your life or the life of someone else.

Reality is a hard place to live sometimes. We have to face it head-on. Ignoring it or hoping it will go away only prolongs the pain. I think the times in my life that I fought what was happening took me so much longer to overcome.

Aging—My aging has taught me so many things. I’m not at all the person I was. In so many ways I’m glad that younger me is gone—or most of her.

I woke up this morning thinking about the friend who introduced me to the Lord. Our lives were joined by God’s plan. Although at the time, I don’t think either of us knew it. It was quite unexpected. I was a hairdresser then, new to the town and trying to build a clientele. Some days I sat for hours with nothing to do. The tension and frustration grew. Then one Friday afternoon I answered the phone and a woman introduced herself as Geri Greer. She worked out at the boys’ ranch, and she needed to find someone to do her hair on Fridays. It would take her about 30 minutes to get here, but she would become a regular.

My first thought was not positive. That meant sitting all day if business stayed so slow and then being late picking up my son every Friday. That didn't look like an option for my dilemma. But for some reason I agreed.

Sure enough, most Fridays Geri was 30 to 35 minutes late arriving. But the crazy thing was that we hit it off from the start. Her personality was the complete opposite of mine. I was negative, constantly frustrated, and often angry deep down inside. Long story short, we became hard and fast friends.

I watched her life like a Hawk. She had three kids, and I had one. We joined our families. But where I was moody and irritated most of the time, Geri was happy-go-lucky and wasn’t always a second away from loading the bullet like I was.

One day I couldn’t stand it anymore and asked her point blank, “Geri, what is wrong with you? How can you be so happy about everything?”

I was expecting any answer other than the one she gave me. A smile spread even wider over her face, and she said, “Sue, I have a hot one to heaven!”

Needless to say, a four-letter word came out of my mouth, and I groaned in even greater frustration. My dear friend was about to try and sell me on religion. But that wasn’t the case, and she made it very clear. She wasn’t trying to sell me anything. She was telling me about her relationship with Jesus.

I’d known ABOUT God but hadn’t heard of Jesus. But at the moment, not only was I even more frustrated, when another of the Trinity showed up—The Holy Spirit. Although it wasn’t a short period of time, I’ll shorten it here.

The Holy Spirit went to work on me, and He would not give an inch. Every single day and night now, He had been unleashed on me, and I couldn’t get away from the hounding feelings. Geri tried to give me all the help she could, but she knew this was something I had to deal with on my own. Finally, the struggle ended in my bed at around two in the morning.

I literally said out loud, “OKAY! OKAY! I give in! If you want my life, you can have it. But first you have to make me two promises. First, that you will never leave me or forsake me.”

I had been left and forsaken so many times in my life that I didn’t think I could stand one more. And if this thing of giving one’s life over to God was real, then this was my last chance to ever change.

That night, the Holy Spirit filled me with His presence, and I became a Christian. The next night, when I walked into Geri’s kitchen, the first thing I said to her was, “Geri, what does it feel like to become a Christian? Because I think I did last night.”

Her eyes filled with tears and she said, “Sue, I knew something had changed when you came in tonight.”

And the rest is history. It would take a much longer post to tell you everything God has done in my life since that night. Deep, deep internal healing. Mental and emotional healings, even physical healings. I am NOT the same person I was 54 years ago. And the Holy Spirit is still changing me.

So why was this brought back to my mind when I woke up today? Because I was thinking about someone I know whose life needs this same thing to happen to them, but it looks unlikely. Whatever happened to them in childhood or even today, they are so in need of God. But they resist every single attempt anyone makes to share anything with them. And the worst thing is they believe that they ARE saved because God loves everyone, and there's no way he is going to send anyone to hell. They truly believe this!

I’ve prayed so much for this person, wondering if there is even one small opening that the Holy Spirit can get through and bust them wide open. In my heart, I know that it’s not the Holy Spirit failing; it's them. Has their heart hardened with a lie to the point that every day they grow more and more resistant to God? It's more than sad. It’s tragic.

There’s a life that they have no idea is waiting for them to just give the Holy Spirit one minute, one second of surrender, and their life will change beyond their imagination.

I know… because it happened to me. And not just me-millions of other people. So why are they so hard?

So, I’m going to ask the Precious Holy Spirit to quicken the title of this posting for me…You just never know. When you least expect it!

I bless you.