That Story I Promised

Anyone who knows me probably can understand why I don't frequent piano bars. I think I'm much to shy and reserved of a person to enjoy them. Actually, my first piano bar experience was in Boston with my friend Evan, a grad student we sort of new and his friend from Boston. It was actually a pretty funny experience (nothing to do with the bar), but it gave me a bad impression of them nonetheless. So, much to my initial chagrin, we hung out in the piano bar on the cruise ship. I say initial because, for the first time ever, I actually had a good time in the piano bar. The main reason for this is that we had an awesome "piano man" named Ron . If you happen to be interested in going on a Carnival cruise and you know a way to figure out who is on the entertainment staff, and you see his name, book that cruise!

But that's not the story I promised. The story I promised was to explain what God taught me on my vacation: That our everyday actions can reveal His plan and grace to others even when we are completely unaware of it; so be careful what you do and say.

What I didn't realize until about the 4th or 5th day of the cruise (12 day cruise) is that our cabin was above the piano bar. Being that I usually sleep close to the headboard (in this case the wall) I could hear Ron playing. It was muffled and I had to pay attention to really hear it, but I could and it lulled me to sleep a lot of the nights.

What I should further explain is that I was sick for the entire cruise and having a hard time going to sleep and staying asleep. So, one night, I was in bed reading Proverbs and then praying
when I heard the piano. My immediate reaction was to smile because I knew the lesson I was praying for had been revealed to me.

Ron was just at work doing what he does almost every night of the cruise. I feel certain he was completely unaware that anyone on deck 6 could hear him and that, as it turned out, his playing for the course of the cruise would bring comfort to me by helping me to fall asleep. Yet God knew all of that and was using him to answer my prayer as well.

That really made me stop and think about the things I do in public. Is there anything I do that reveals God's glory when I least expect it? Is there anything I need to change? I'm sure the answer to both of those questions is yes.

He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness...
1 Corinthians 4:5b



p.s. I ended up putting my photos from the trip on my flickr account instead of my photo blog.
Here's the link to my set for the trip.