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4:05 p.m. Today's project was to teach Bible study at a new location, Malinda's home. To that end, as I was reviewing my notes, it occurred to me that the off ramp to exit to her house had been very jammed with construction traffic last time I drove it, so I called her to ask if we should allow extra time or take another exit.

After I completed dialing her number, a recording came on. "Do not hang up. Your call has been intentionally redirected to Verizon Financial Services." Uh-oh! This happened about 11 years ago, and I had to speedily pay my bill. Today it was the same thing, I had forgotten to pay my past due amount, and the service was ALREADY disconnected. So I arranged with the electronic system to have a payment come out of our checking account tomorrow. Meanwhile, no cell phone access for the five of us--my soon-to-be-married daughter, my youngest son, myself and Steve, and my dad-- until midnight June 24th, one day before the wedding! Talk about feeling lame and irresponsible...

I had to wake up my daughter and tell her that she could use our landline and get people to use her fiance's phone number, and I Facebook messaged my youngest son. Steve can't really operate a phone any more, and my dad leaves his out in his car, so no harm done there.

With those matters taken care of, I went on to review my lesson on David and Goliath, eat breakfast, get dressed and ready for my ride to the Bible study. "No sense crying over spilt milk," my mother used to say. And since God had allowed this embarrassing inconvenience, I confessed my carelessness and redirected my focus to teaching the His Word to the women.

II Timothy 4:2, 5b says,

Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.

Fulfill your ministry.

In reflecting on the chapter at hand, I Samuel 17, I realized that before David had his smashing victory over Goliath, the giant had been threatening and taunting all of the Israelite army for 30 days, morning and night. But David didn't allow himself to be bothered at all, because He "knew Whom he had believed." (para. I Timothy 1:12). I thought, "The enemy is trying to blow my mistake all out of proportion, because the study is going to be great today! He is trying to intimidate me from teaching with the total concentration that comes from the Holy Spirit and inspires the wonderful discussions and learning we all do together each week!" Well, I decided that I was having none of it, and I would not be distracted, in the Name of Jesus!

During the ride with Charlotte and Cindy, I openly told them about the cell phone disconnection, and they said, "It's not like you don't have anything else on your mind, Dana!" We drove handily over to Malinda's, had a larger than usual group, including Bobbie, who got out of physical therapy early and came right over!

God's word rang out with power, the women shared and edified one another, and the Spirit was active and alive in that living room! The privilege I felt to be the one who merely opened the conversation was overwhelming.

What a mighty God we serve!

And as a little "sweetener," God allowed the phones to be turned back on in plenty of time for Heidi and Pavel's wedding rehearsal and his mom's fabulous homemade Romanian-style dinner!