Here is something I meant to post last month when I was on my trip to Virgina. A post over at the G Sides reminded me of it.
Grant said:

To imagine that the pimple-faced kid who can?t look anyone in the eye could one day be the reason thousands know Jesus is hard - no, impossible - when he (or she) has just spilled the 4th Dr. Pepper on your white carpet. Years could go by without affirmation that what you do is working and the parable of the 10 healed but 1 returning makes perfect sense now. 

My trip was to Williamsburg, VA. The last time I was there was 16 years ago on a mission trip with my church youthgroup. My youth pastor at the time was from the area and while I was there last month I tried looking him up. After about 3 minutes on Google I discovered he was pastoring a church in North Carolina. Since I was already in a nostalgic mood I decided to give him a call. We talked for a few minutes about what we were doing now and about our trip way back in 1990. A few days later I got an email from him and he said this:

Just wanted to drop you a quick line to say ?thanks? for your phone call the other day. It really has been awhile since I thought deeply about my experiences back in Columbus, but the contact from you was a welcome invitation to reminisce a little. I enjoyed our conversation so much, in fact, that I?m using it as a sermon illustration this Sunday?it (along with some other experiences of this past week) allows me to consider how the various ?stories? of our lives are never really finished, but are continually being used by God to keep writing the ?grand story? that he is creating in and through our lives. 

Wow, I’m a real life sermon illustration!

But seriously, it is neat to see how God uses people in our lives to help guide us and form us into who he wants us to be. And you don’t have to be a youth pastor to do it. Every time we come in contact with someone, we have the opportunity to be used by God to make an impact on their lives.

The flip side of that coin is I pass up those opportunities on a daily basis. I need to find the “ON” switch for that radar.