I love the story David Seamands tells in his book, Living With Your Dreams, about an apparently wasted day. When he was a missionary in India, Seamands was scheduled to attend a meeting in another town and arose early to catch the train. Not long into the journey the train was unable to continue due to problems with the tracks. There was no other transport. He was unable to continue his journey and unable to return home until the next day. He was left to spend the whole day at a remote train station with nothing to do.
There was however, a small bookstore with only one book written in English, which he bought and read. It was a religious book, but not Christian, and not a book he would normally read. But what else was there to do? Seamands thought this was a completely wasted day.
Ten years later, when Seamands was back home and pastoring a church, a young man came to see him. He was having some intellectual difficulties with the Christian faith, but seemed reluctant to share them. Abruptly he asked Seamands if he had read a particular book. It was the book Seamands had read on the remote Indian train station. The conversation that followed, and the relationship that developed deeply impacted this young man, who grew to have a solid Christian faith.
Remember that nothing in God is wasted. A wasted day may turn out to be a most significant day in terms of eternity.
