His hands were fiddling with his watch the whole time. He had taken it off and seemed to be trying to get it to wake up, to get it unstuck.

The Mobile Office is at Black Rifle Coffee, Beyond Black is in the cup, Country is on the playlist, and God is in the room recalibrating us.

Under pre-dawn darkness, this coffee house is usually quiet with few interruptions, but today has been different. On the way out the door, Jeremy stopped and asked me to pray for him. He was profoundly confused. So, we prayed.

I didn’t know Cord was sitting behind me; he just appeared… Mmmmm.

He got up and studied the coffee menu for a long time, then ordered “Large Beyond Black.”

Without looking my way, he walked across the room and waited by the tall wall table. His hands were fiddling with his watch the whole time. He had taken it off and seemed to be trying to get it to wake up, to get it unstuck.

“Hi, my name is Ron. You seem upset with your watch,” I called out. We were now the only customers in the room.

“I’m rebooting the compass on it,” he responded. “This little thing counts my steps, checks my heart rate, sends me notifications, shows me the time, shows me caller ID, and a bunch of together things that I never use. It’s pretty cool, but every once in a while, I have to recalibrate the compass.”

“Really, how do you do that?” I asked.

“I take it off and mess it up — spin it around, rock it back and forth, disorient it. Then, it’s programmed to recalibrate itself. It’s a soft reboot. I have to confuse it and disorient it for it to get back to north.”

Ummmmmmm.

I sat back down musing…

Now I’m recalibrating.

It seems like Abba is recalibrating me a lot lately. I get spun around and bumped back and forth — disoriented — so God can get me back to Jesus… Is your life a mess? Have you been tossed to and fro? Have you been constantly discouraged? Depressed? Fed up or tired?  Maybe, God is recalibrating you too!

Jesus is our North Star, but like Jeremy, we all get confused. Life gets chaotic, and living in the haze clouds our vision, perception, and direction. So, God shakes us up, spins us around, rattles our cage, so we can re-orient ourselves — so we can find our way home so that we will look for Jesus in the room.

Wow, a sermon from a stranger!

“Thank you, Abba, that makes me smile.”

 Author: Ron Rose