Bridge Stories: Letting Your Story Become a Bridge That Leads Others to Christ

God Provides

And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.

—Philippians 4:19 NIV

Whenever I begin to doubt God’s provision, I find myself looking back to this recorded story from my life. A few years ago, the Lord gave me the opportunity to visit my brother in New York City. However, as much as I wanted to go, I really could not afford it. But because God wanted me to go, He provided. In one day, I ended up gaining two hundred dollars, the complete cost of the plane ticket, and it all came about in a rather amazing way.

One day, while at a video store, I reached into my wallet to grab a one-dollar bill only to find that there was a one-hundred-dollar bill in its place, and I hadn’t placed it there. I didn’t have a one-hundred-dollar bill. I then began to think about my transactions that day, and since I typically did not carry or use cash, I could not recall where I would have accidentally received a one-hundred-dollar bill. I was stumped.

Later that day, I went to another store in a strip mall. After shopping, I walked quite a distance back to my car, where I discovered three twenty-dollar bills lying right behind my car, almost under my car, and absolutely no one around to claim them. Again, I was stumped. I then got into my car and drove through the parking lot toward the exit, and as I drove, I noticed more money in the road. So I got out of my car and found myself picking up two more twenty-dollar bills, which brought my total from that parking lot to one hundred dollars. The one-hundred-dollar bill in my purse plus the one hundred dollars from the parking lot was two hundred dollars, exactly enough to cover my plane ticket to New York City, which I ended up purchasing that day.

Then, when I was actually in New York City, there was a moment when I really wanted to take a taxi because I was tired, but my brother didn’t want to spend the money. We eventually decided to take a taxi anyway, and as we were getting into the cab, I found a ten-dollar bill. God even paid for that taxi ride! He was definitely on a mission to prove to me that He provides where He leads.

I know that God orchestrated this story in my life to show me in a tangible way that if something is His will, then it is His bill. And it worked, for when I start to doubt, this story of God’s provision always seems to come back into my mind. It is as if God said, I am capable of manifesting a one-hundred-dollar bill in your purse, and I can shower you with twenty-dollar bills. It is no big deal for Me. It is no big deal because God knows that money is just paper. It holds no value for Him, except as a means that He may choose to use to get us to where we need to be. He will provide where He leads. Let us all truly believe and testify.

God Romances: A Coffee Story

Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

—Psalm 34:8 NIV

In 2006, after separating from my boyfriend, Joe, I entered a season of heartbreak. It was one of the hardest seasons of my life. However, it was a season that God used for His glory. He used this heartache to draw me closer to Him, and as I got closer, He began to reveal Himself to me more and more. This story is one of many during this season that God used to help me fall more in love with Him, my Ultimate Love.

During this time, I was in a women’s Bible study that was reading through a book called Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge. At the height of my heartache, we happened to enter a chapter on romance. Supposedly, the chapter talks about letting God romance you as a way to see the blessings that He will give if you ask and become aware of His manifesting presence. I say supposedly because I skipped this chapter. It made me angry because at that time I did not like the idea of having to resort to God for romancing in place of Joe—in place of a man.

However, even though I did not read it, the girls in my group talked about a story from this chapter that caught my attention. Apparently, Stasi really wanted to see a whale since her husband had seen one without her. Missing that experience upset her, until God gave her a special moment all her own when she walked out onto a beach that was covered with starfish. After hearing this story from the others who read the chapter, I became very childish and actually stuck my finger in my mouth and down my throat to point out how this concept made me gag. The idea of God romancing me didn’t seem as fulfilling to me as a romantic gesture from a man, in my case, Joe. Yet despite my childish behavior, my study group still encouraged me to give it a try.

Okay! I thought to myself, I will give it a chance.

The next morning, during my time with the Lord, reluctantly—and I admit with a bit of an attitude—I said, Okay, God, romance me, and instantly coffee flashed into my mind. I then thought to myself, How could God really romance me with coffee? It seems like such a trivial, earthly thing. However, I then began to think about coffee and its importance to me. It went back to my Paris café experiences. After college, I spent a year in Paris, France, with a Christian organization, and ever since then, my favorite pastime has been to talk with someone over coffee. I love the intimacy that a cup of coffee, or really any warm beverage, can bring. In fact, I love it so much that I even began calling my quiet times or my times with God coffee times. With that said, I also began to have a strong affinity for coffee paraphernalia, mostly because coffee began to make me think of God. Even to this day, I love to talk to God with a cup of coffee in my hand.

Anyway, with coffee still on my mind, after work that day, I decided to go and buy myself a single-cup coffeemaker. I really did not need to spend the money, but in my gloom, I decided to treat myself to something special. So, I headed to several stores to do some price checking and eventually settled on one. I was picky, and I wanted one that was a certain size, so I ended up picking one that was priced at $49.99. This was more than I wanted to pay, especially since I had also decided to get a few more things while I was there, all things that could really add up in price. Needless to say, my spirit began to sink as I tallied the cost of my purchases, but I headed to the checkout anyway.

The cashier scanned the coffeemaker first. Then, after she scanned the other items, she looked up at me and said, $37.45.

What? Did you get that? I asked her as I pointed to the coffeemaker.

Yes, I think so. It must be on sale or something, was her nonchalant reply.

She then handed me a list with the exact price of my items. At the top of the list, it said, Coffeemaker $4.00. Instantly, I knew what was happening. You should have seen my face. God bought me a coffeemaker. He did romance me with coffee! I actually ended up leaving that store having spent less than what the coffeemaker alone should have cost.

I went back to that store again the following week and found three more of that same coffeemaker. This time, they were only two dollars each! So, God gave me four coffeemakers for ten dollars. He doesn’t just give you one apple; He gives you the whole bushel. This experience made me think of Jehoshaphat, a king in the Old Testament. He relinquished a battle to the Lord and ended up not only defeating Moab and Ammon, but walking away with plunder too. As it says in 2 Chronicles 20:25 (NIV), So Jehoshaphat and his men went to carry off their plunder, and they found among them a great amount of equipment and clothing and also articles of value—more than they could take away. There was so much plunder that it took three days to collect it.

Of course, I didn’t need four coffeemakers, so I gave a few away! And that week, my coffee never tasted so sweet because God romanced me with coffee! He had revealed to me His manifesting presence, that He is capable and willing to show up in every detail of our lives. For He truly is our Ultimate Love.

God Thinks We Are Beautiful

Listen, daughter, and pay careful attention: Forget your people and your father’s house. Let the king be enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord.

—Psalm 45:10–11 NIV

I went to China a few years ago on a mission trip. While I was there, as happens a lot when I travel, I ended up retaining a lot of water, which didn’t help with the already low body image that I was struggling with at that time. Anyway, one day, some of our native Christian friends there ended up introducing my teammates and me to a doctor and professor working at the university where we were staying. He worked in Chinese medicine and after noticing that I was bloated mentioned that he had medicine that would help my metabolism. This intrigued me, so I made an appointment right then and there to purchase it from him the following day.

Like I said, I struggled with my body image a lot during that time in my life. Because of this, I had been hoping that I would lose a few pounds in China so that it would spur me on to continue to do so once I got back home since this trip was physically challenging. However, as you can see, I ended up feeling as if I had gained weight while I was there instead. I really prayed over this medicine though, about whether or not I should use it, and as I did, I began to struggle with confusion. I didn’t know what to do because I found myself able to validate my decision either way. Plus, I admit that I really wanted a quick fix. However, the following day, I finally prayed one last time, surrendering my confusion to the Lord and asking Him to show me what He wanted me to do. I knew that when I did this, it would then be His job to show me clearly.

The following day, I went to see this doctor only to find that he wasn’t there, that for some reason, he had forgotten our appointment. They had no record that I was even supposed to see him. So I couldn’t help but to think to myself, Well, God cannot get any blunter than that, and in that moment, I decided not to pursue getting the medicine any longer.

I then went back to my dorm room where I noticed that a note had been slipped under my door. The note read:

Susan, while we were praying tonight a thought popped into my head and it did not go away, so I think I am supposed to give it to you:

"Susan, you are a very beautiful woman who I, God, am very pleased with. Your sentiment toward others is sweet and lovely. My fragrance follows you wherever you go. I take great delight in you. Focus on me, and I will reveal your beauty to you. You are treasured in my sight and a precious gem. I love you more than you know. Jesus"

Wow! I had never experienced God putting a whole message on someone’s heart to give to me before, but I knew God used the body of Christ to speak and I really valued this girl’s relationship with the Lord. Because of this, I did end up believing that those were Jesus’ words to me. In fact, I framed them so that they would be a constant reminder to me. I really needed that at that particular moment in time, and God has continued to bring me back to those framed words and to this recorded story whenever I have needed the reminder that my Ultimate Love thinks I am beautiful.

Thank You, Lord, for always seeing our true beauty!

Live

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

—John 10:10 NIV

One day, as I was sitting in front of my computer at work, feeling fatigued, like always, as well as concerned for my ears, which had been acting up, I found myself lifting these concerns to the Lord. His response to me was "Susan, live." I then went downstairs and began to talk with Melissa, my coworker and friend, and the first thing out of her mouth was an invitation to pray for someone else. She began to tell me about how the doctors had told this person that the reason why he wasn’t getting over a cold that he had had for a long time was because his immune system was poor. It was poor because he had suffered with cancer for many years and was still at that time undergoing chemotherapy.

Anyway, we then began to talk about an upcoming trip that this man was taking and about our concern as to whether or not he should even go on this trip. But then Melissa replied that he wanted to go because he knew that if he stopped and slowed down, that things would get worse. I could tell that this man was definitely a go-getter, so much so that God used his story to open my eyes. For God began to show me that my situation was nothing like his. He showed me that things could be much worse and that I needed to stop complaining.

I mean, there I was complaining about my fatigue and my ear allergies, at thirty-five years of age, using this as an excuse to be complacent, and here was this man who was over seventy years old, with a poor immune system and cancer, pressing through to live life to the fullest. No wonder God told me to live. For God was pointing out that I could spend all of my time complaining about my rather insignificant health issues in terms of the big picture, or I could get up and continue to accomplish the mission that He had set before me, one that my minor health issues really were not hindering, even though I sometimes felt as if they were.

We are not made for this world. As God had even been pointing out to me at that time through the death of a friend the week before and through some meaningful verses that followed, our bodies will wear out and death will come. But we should not be afraid of this, for death is truly only the beginning, if in fact we have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior.

One of those verses that had become dear to my heart is a verse that my devotional happened to revolve around the day after my friend’s funeral. It was Psalm 116:15 (NIV), which says, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants. What? God delights in our death? Well, why shouldn’t He? For even the apostle Paul said that to live is Christ but to die is gain (Philippians 1:21). Let me say that again, to live is Christ, but to die is gain.

God delights in our deaths because He knows that we were not made for this world. He knows that our entrance into heaven is our entrance into what we were really made for, a marriage to Christ for all eternity. But while we are still on earth, for a time such as this, He also wants us to live life to the fullest, and we do this by letting Christ live in us. Our lives on this earth are for one purpose and one purpose only, whether we are sitting at a desk all day long or overseas on a mission trip. It is to glorify God with all our strength.

So, Lord, help us all, like the apostle Paul and like this man with cancer, to press through. Help us to press through the momentary trials of this life and live. Please glorify Yourself through our weaknesses so that we may live for You all the days of our lives, up until the very end when we go to be with You and enter into true living. What a day of abundance that will be! Praise God.

Shine Like a Star

Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain.

—Philippians 2:14–16 NIV

A few Christmases ago, God taught me an important lesson. It is a lesson that He reminds me of every year at Christmas when I see my Christmas star lit up in my front window. Whenever I see that star, I remember that we were meant to shine, to shine Christ’s love from the inside out.

That Christmas, I went to buy a movie for Joe, and as I went to check out at the register, I ended up behind an older gentleman. Seeing that all I had was one movie, he told me to go ahead of him. Are you sure? I asked, and he replied, Yes, for it is only me. He then joked that I could buy his cookies.

In that moment, my heart really felt compassion for this man, and I began to hope that he really wasn’t just by himself. All I know is that I then found myself whispering to the female clerk that I wanted to buy his cookies. She was greatly taken aback and began asking me if I knew him, but I simply told her that he had joked with me. She then began to ring up my movie and his cookies and put them in a bag. All the while, neither of us knew if the gentleman was attuned to what was happening or not. She, however, continued to be amazed, and I could tell that she had never seen anyone do what I was doing. So, sweetly and genuinely, she told me to have a merry Christmas.

Later, I told Joe that that moment may have been more for the cashier than for the older gentleman. This was all the more reason why I found myself regretting that I hadn’t even once thought to look at that woman and say, The love of Christ compels me, or something like that that would have given God the glory and pointed her to Him. I mean, I didn’t even have my silver cross necklace on in that moment, which was very rare for me.

The next morning, my devotional revolved around James 1:22–25 (NIV). James says,

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

What really stuck out to me was the inspirational that went along with this passage. It talked about how we as Christ followers are living observed lives; that others are watching us. That our concern for others, particularly the least among us, is an expression of the compassion Christ displayed to the hurting. The devotional challenged us to put the love of Christ into practice in our everyday lives because a hurting world is watching us and so is our Lord.

After reading that, as you can imagine, I once again started to think about that moment in the store and found myself again regretting not being able to look at that cashier and tell her that the love of Christ compelled me. I began to believe that it wasn’t by accident that I didn’t even have my silver cross necklace on during that encounter, because I always had it on; it was extremely rare to find me without it, and yet in that one moment, it wasn’t there to speak for me.

I then started thinking about whether or not Christ would be able to shine through me without it, if it wasn’t there to speak for me like it had been once when I was in Japan and didn’t know the language. Back then, in order to witness to an older gentleman who didn’t speak English, I pointed to my cross necklace and then bowed, after he had bowed to the Buddhist shrine in his house to show me his tradition. If I didn’t have a physical cross anywhere on my body, would people still know that I was a Christian, even in America?

Well, to add to the story, during this same quiet time with God, He also ended up bringing to my mind the fact that it had taken over a year for me to get around to putting new light bulbs into the light fixtures outside my house and that although I finally had the day before that in order to save money, I had still turned them off right before I went to bed, which was something that I didn’t used to do. When I first moved into my house, I would leave them on all night in order to bring light to the darkness and to bless my neighbors. But, like I said, the night before, even though they had new bulbs, I turned them off. Yet I began to see with this thought that I may have quenched the Holy Spirit, for I then remembered that as I was turning them off, I actually began to hear a still small voice telling me that it was time to shine.

The revelation that followed was that maybe I couldn’t depend on tangible things to shine for me. My necklace, for instance, was just a symbol. Christ, however, is not. He is the Word. He is the Light. But I was now the Word made flesh, the Light, Christ in me. But was I shining? Was I truly reflecting Christ?

It was hard for me to think of never wearing my silver cross necklace again, but I began to think that maybe that was actually what I needed, that maybe if I didn’t wear it, I would be more conscious of the need to represent the Lord with my actions and words. I would be more conscious of the fact that it was I who needed to shine for people more so than my necklace, for as Christ’s body, we are now the Word made flesh. We are His hands and feet and voice.

Then as I thought more about how I used to keep my outside house lights on, all of a sudden, a strong desire grew within me to have some sort of outside Christmas light display to bless my neighbors. It was such a strong desire that I knew deep down that it wasn’t necessarily to please my neighbors or to be like them but to simply bless them and to join in helping my cul-de-sac light up the way I used to when I kept my outside house lights on all night. I knew that the desire was coming from the Lord.

So I started looking, whenever I had the chance, for outdoor nativity sets. But, sadly, they were very scarce. However, eventually on my search, my eye caught a star. It was simply a star made of white lights to be hung on a door or in a window, and it was even on sale. I don’t know how to explain it, but I just instantly knew that this was it. So I bought it and ended up hanging it on the inside of my house, putting it in my bedroom window, which was my home’s front window, and it shined brightly from the inside out.

A few days later, due to his anxiety over getting all of his Christmas presents made in time, Joe asked if he could sleep on my basement couch that evening. All of his art materials were in my basement since he had been making his gifts there, and he knew he’d be working late to finish them. Well, at first, I hesitated but then told him that it would be okay, and I went upstairs to bed.

The next morning, I got up and started to have my quiet time in my bedroom since Joe was down in my basement, my usual quiet-time room. That morning, before my time with the Lord, although I took the time to put on my makeup, I didn’t do my hair but simply pushed it back with a headband. I also simply put on a brown zip-up sweater without another shirt underneath. And well, although decent, it made for a funny scenario that I have to say made some of my friends laugh.

Anyway, as I was sitting in my chair having my quiet time in my bedroom, with the curtain to my front window raised, I had a clear view of Joe’s nieces approaching my front