This past Sunday Trudi and I were trying to figure out which church we would like to visit. I was on vacation, so I did a little web surfing to see where we might go on Sunday morning. There are many great churches in Southwest Florida, so it’s not an easy choice.

I was able to rule out one church right away – Cape Christian Fellowship. Not that I have anything against CCF. I’ve heard good things about both the church and its pastor, Dennis Gingerich.

But their youth pastor – whom I’ve never met – is…Tim McDaniel. Great name (even if his middle name is Kenneth, thereby distinguishing him as the Tim K. McDaniel who is a pastor in Southwest Florida, as opposed to myself, the Tim D. McDaniel who is a pastor in Southwest Florida.)

Tim McDaniel wouldn’t seem to be the most common name. To have two of us serving on ministry staffs just miles apart…strange. And probably wonderful. (But I’m the Tim McDaniel you’ll find at www.Twitter.com/TimMcDaniel.)

We went to First Assembly instead. Good service. And no one on staff was named me.

[Edit: No, the picture is NOT me, it's the other Tim. I have (a little) more hair.]

Boating on Lake Weir, originally uploaded by RevMcGator.

That’s a cliche that is used in many different ways, but ends up being true more often than not. “You never know.”

It’s true because we don’t know the future. We have a perspective on what’s happened in the past. We have a perception of what is happening around us at the present. We use both of those to help us predict what might happen in the future.

That’s especially true when we think about people.

But you never know.

Things happen we didn’t predict, and that can put a whole new set of circumstances in motion. And just when you think things are going to turn out one way…well, you never know.

“The Lord frustrates the plans of the nations and thwarts all their schemes. But the Lord’s plans stand firm forever; his intentions can never be shaken.” Psalms 33:10-11

He knows.