Desiring God 2008

I spent the weekend in Minneapolis, Minnesota with seven dear friends at the Desiring God 2008 National Conference. The theme of the conference was “The Power of Words and the Wonder of God.” I would love to tell you about the incredible teaching we received from men like Sinclair Ferguson, Bob Kauflin, Mark Driscoll, Dan Taylor, Paul Tripp, and John Piper. I would love to tell you the many ways in which God brought conviction and encouragement and sweet fellowship among those attending. I would love to tell you how God’s Word was faithfully preached and God’s Spirit was at work changing hearts and lives. And I hope to do all of these things in due time. But first I want to tell you about God’s faithfulness and kindness in so many specific ways over these past three days. These events were so abundant and such a defining element of our weekend that I am going to spend an entire post to tell of them. I trust you will see why by the time I get to the end.

The Forgetfulness of Man and the Faithfulness of God

I am titling this first section in a blatant rip off of John Piper’s conference theme because I figure that anything John Piper spends hours constructing is worthy of imitation. This particular wording is appropriate because you will likely respond to the follow events one of two ways: either shock and awe at how forgetful we are, or shock and awe at how gracious God is.

Scene one. The six of us traveling together (Anne-Marie French, Christina Plouff, Scott Singleton, Trevor Startt, David Stein, and myself) arrive at Concourse A of the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. The morning has gone smoothly so far, although we are desperately hungry and by hungry I mean we want Chick-fil-A. I diverge for a moment to report that although we were told by both the Airport Directory and the Airport Information Desk that there was not a Chick-fil-A on the airport premises, we soon turned the corner toward our gate to discover nothing other than a Chick-fil-A waiting patiently for our arrival. But before this glorious uniting, Trevor realized that he had lost his boarding pass at some point after we had gone through security. Since our flight was departing from the first concourse, we had decided to walk rather than take the tram. He backtracked and found it lying in the middle of the walkway. God showed His kindness in a moment, even there before the trip had actually begun.

Scene two. For this example, we fast forward to the tail end of the trip. We have already checked out of our hotel, which is outside of actual downtown Minneapolis where the conference is being held. The morning’s only session is over and we are on our way back to the van when Anne-Marie realizes that her camera is not in her purse where it has been all weekend. We arrive back at our van and begin a thorough search. (Did I mention how cool it is these days to drive around in a Dodge minivan? David thought so too, I think.) We look on the seats, between the seats, and under the seats. We look in compartments and crannies, through bags and luggage, and cannot find it. David is on the phone with our hotel asking them to check the room. With nowhere else to look, I sit down in the back of the van, feeling underneath the seat one more time. Anne-Marie climbs into the car and is about to sit down beside me, convinced that it is indeed not in the car. And that’s precisely when we both see it at about the same time, her camera sitting in its case in the middle of the back seat. We look at each other with baffled expressions, each equally convinced that it was not there each time we had previously looked. We were confused, but we thanked God once again for his kindness and his quick and tangible answer to our prayers.

Scene three. We are at the Minneapolis—St. Paul Airport about to return to Atlanta via layover in Detroit. Due to some booking complications, David is on a different return flight than the rest of us (more on that later), but his flight leaves later and so he eats lunch with us at our gate before we have to board. A few minutes after boarding is complete and we are settled in our back row seats, David calls me to ask whether we were still at the gate because he cannot find his Bible and journal, which he knows he had with him at the airport at some point. We are unfortunately unable to help him, so he begins the long walk back from his gate to ours. Not long after, the desk attendant from Northwest Airlines arrives at our back row seats and says, “Ah, Row 47… do these belong to your friend?” In her hand, of course, are David’s Bible and journal. We are not quite able to figure this one out; she responds to our question of “how?” with “I did some investigative work” and walks back off of the plane. I call David, who informs me that he had just finished praying. Of course he had. Of course God did. By this time, we could do nothing other than look at each other and laugh, praising God for His mysterious provisions.

Scene three, part two. Though traveling on different flights, we arrive back in Atlanta safely and rendezvous with David at the airport to take MARTA back up to Buckhead where our vehicle is parked. As we approach the Buckhead station after having switched trains halfway, David realizes that he has once again lost his Bible and journal which we gave back to him at the airport. Having already exited the train, we again search through all of his bags and luggage. We conclude that he must have left it on the first train when we switched over. Of course we’re all thinking how bizarre it is for God to restore David’s Bible and journal once only for him to lose them again a few hours later. I swear to you we were not yet to the top of stairs leading out of the subway when David gets a voicemail from a MARTA worker saying that she had his Bible and journal and would hang onto them until he got a chance to pick them up. He talked to her later and she informed him that she was a believer herself and understood how important these would be to him. David’s cell phone number happened to be written on a receipt stuck inside of his journal.

The forgetfulness of man and the faithfulness of God. These were the kinds of events that riddled our weekend.

They Always Happen in Threes

I recognize this post has gotten long, but I want to share three more events from this weekend that fall into another sort of category and yet still reflect the incredible faithfulness of God and the perfection of His sovereign will. We met a lot of people this weekend. I want to tell you about three.

Bruce at Mickey’s. On Saturday night after the main session we went to the world-famous and historical Mickey’s Dining Car in St. Paul, Minnesota. It is a very, very small diner and the only way for all eight of us to fit was to sit at the long bar just in front of the cooking area, of course the best seats in the place. We took up nearly all the seats, but just behind us a man walked in who asked if we could all move down so he could have a place to sit. We gladly accommodated. Of course then it fell to this man, Bruce, to take a group picture of us sitting in the diner. He ended up sitting next to Trevor, and Trevor was able to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with Bruce, who responded with openness and gratitude, though he did not then and there make a confession of faith. He agreed to attend a church the following morning. Trevor paid for his meal and encouraged him to read through the book of John, and then Bruce did allow Trevor to pray for him. This from a man whom at the beginning of the conversation exclaimed for all to hear, “Church sucks.” Pray for Bruce.

The Woman on David’s Plane. I already mentioned how David ended up on a different returning flight than the rest of us. I have not yet caught her name from David, but David was engaged in conversation with the woman next to whom he was sitting on his flight home. She told him she was a writer. He told her he was at a conference about the power of words and the wonder of God. She told him she felt like she was wasting her life in her current job. He gave her a copy of “Don’t Waste Your Life” by John Piper, of which he happened to have three copies in his backpack, though he only remembers buying two at the conference for friends back home. She told him she was a Christian but her family was struggling to find a church. He told her about Sovereign Grace Church in Woodstock, Georgia. Pray for the woman on David’s plane.

The Man on MARTA. Our second train ride on MARTA on the way home was short. Too short. The train was fairly empty, but we began a conversation with the man sitting near us. After we told him that we had been at a conference in Minneapolis called Desiring God, he told us that he had been in Los Angeles for the Atheist Alliance Convention. The irony was deafening. He told us that he was a sort of student of religion; that he spent a bit of his retired life attending conferences like this one, having nothing else really to do. And then we were at our exit. He seemed sad to see us go, as though he had been anticipating where the conversation was surely going. But not one of us had a chance to share the Gospel with him. I so appreciate in particular Anne-Marie’s burden for this lost man, and her suggestion to pray for him as we drove home. We did. Please pray for the man on MARTA whose name we never got to know.

These are a few examples of God’s mighty hand at work this weekend. And I haven’t even yet said a word about the actual content of the conference. But is not God good? He taught us as much through these experiences as He did through the messages and speakers, which, I assure you, was no small amount of teaching. I am so grateful not simply that I was able to attend this conference, but that I was able to be a part of what God was doing in the greater story of His Kingdom this weekend.