Sometimes, God steps in and does things that are completely unexpected. And if we don’t pay attention, we may miss out on something grand, and overwhelming, and it might even just wreck you!

You may know about my brush with skin cancer last October. Since then, I have had another recurrence, on my left temple, just outside of my eye socket. It stinks, but it there, and so it must be dealt with. Fortunately, I have a good dermatologist who knows his stuff, knows me, and between the two of us, we keep a pretty close eye on my skin’s condition.

My dad had the same thing. It metastasized into his brain, and he passed away in 2011. So this isn’t some simple little health issue. This has the potential to be vastly devastating, for me, for my wife, for my kids, and a lot of others who are close to me. So we keep a close eye on it.

Unexpectedly, this time around, we discovered that it would be better for us to pay out of our own pockets for this, instead of submitting it to the ministry share program we are members of, Samaritan Ministries. The bills were not enough to warrant sending them in, and Samaritan Ministries has been overwhelmed recently with needs, so it likely wouldn’t be fully covered anyway. So we decided to try to pay this one off on our own.

I collect pocket knives. Mostly traditional slipjoints, but I enjoy an occasional Swiss Army or other modern folder too. I have several in my collection, so I decided that I could part with a few of these to help cover the bills. And, I’m in a couple of knife groups on Facebook, so I figured it would be an easy thing to liquidate a couple of them.

What happened next caught me completely by surprise.

I posted one knife in one of the Facebook groups. Within moments, someone else had commented, “How about we just raise the money for you and you keep the knife. I’m in for $15.” By the end of the afternoon, I was stunned. I sat at the desk in my office in tears as one after another, dozens of people chipped in. A couple of other guys donated knives, put them up for auction, and sent the sales price to me. There were even a couple of raffles, with people buying chances for a knife, and the funds were directed to my PayPal account.

This was a Wednesday afternoon. By Friday morning, these guys had raise more than $2000 to help pay my medical bills.

These guys (and girls), who are rowdy, sometimes crass, often vocal and opinionated, and many times, opinionated differently than me, raised enough money to finish paying off my bills, and leave enough behind to cover my next follow up appointment in a few weeks.

I was completely and totally blown away. What in the world could cause such a varied and diverse group of people to do something like this, so unselfishly, and accomplish so much? Only God could do this.

If I had asked our church to help, I know they would have. There would have been individuals in our church who would have gladly offered to help, and would have willingly done so. But to see such generosity from somewhere besides the church, that was unexpected. And it affected me deeply, as well as my family.

We are grateful for such a wonderful group of new friends, friends who are generous beyond measure.

I hope one day to be able to repay this, at least to some extent, by passing it on to someone else who faces such a need.

Until then, I have a lot of thinking and processing to do. Because God wrecked me, again, by accomplishing something so grand and unexpected that I am humbled and grateful.

Just when I think I have him figured out…

Question: What has God done in your life that has completely blown you away? How did it affect you? You can leave a comment by clicking here.