He leads me

For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle and set me high upon a rock. Psalm 27:5

Never shall I forget my time in Tashkent, Russia in August of 1975. Vietnam had just fallen, and it was obvious from the way I was treated that Americans were disliked in the USSR.

While still on the plane, my passport was taken from me. When I got to the hotel, I also noticed something unusual. Sitting at the tiny desk in my room at the Intourist Hotel, I saw that the panel adjacent to the desk was slightly ajar. Taking my key, I gently pried open the panel. I discovered a microphone pointed at the desk like the barrel of a gun. My hotel room was bugged! When I left the room, the old babushka in the hall squinted at me and scornfully took my key, recording my comings and goings in a well-worn notebook.

I had Bibles for the underground church there but was effectively stopped from delivering them. Coming back to my room one morning, I discovered that my suitcase had been pilfered while I was away. Feeling alone, thousands of miles from the nearest friend or family member and suffering from food poisoning, I took a portable cassette recorder and randomly pressed a tape into it. As though it had been cued to start at that exact point, the voice of George Beverly Shea began singing the hymn, “He leadeth me! blessed tho’t/O words with heavenly comfort fraught;/Whate’er I do, where-e’er I be, still ’tis God’s hands that leadeth me.”

Hearing those words was reassuring and comforting for me. If I had heard an audible voice from above, it could not have touched my heart more. Jesus said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you!” Be encouraged today, friend, because He is with you even in your darkest hours.