Part #1

One day, while worshiping at PIHOP (Pasadena International House of Prayer), I saw a picture in my mind’s eye that felt like God speaking tenderly to me. I saw Him giving me roses without thorns. I said, “You don’t need to take out the thorns just for me. I am used to living with thorns.” He replied, “I want to give you roses without thorns because I love you.” It was a sweet reply, and I pondered what the outworking of this word could look like in the coming days, weeks, or months.

Part #2

A day after receiving this word, I made a pronounced mistake. I forgot it was Tuesday night, the night I lead worship at PIHOP from 11 pm to midnight. Due to unusual events that day, I completely forgot my worship set time. At 10:55 pm, I got a text from Manuel, another PIHOP member, offering to be a doorkeeper for my set. It was then I realized I had forgotten my assignment. I freaked out as I was getting ready for bed and needed to start leading worship in five minutes in a location that would take me ten minutes to get to.

I called Manuel to explain my mistake, but before I could say anything, he told me a friend from Germany, who used to lead worship at PIHOP, was in town and ready to lead worship at my set time. This offer, completely unaware of my mistake, floored me. Immediately, the word from the day before came back to me—"a rose without thorns." Recognizing God's unconditional love in this moment, I breathed a sigh of relief. Humbly, I told Manuel, "Yes, of course, you guys can go ahead and lead." With that exchange, my problem was fixed, and I was free to stay home and go to bed.

Another potential problem this blessing evaded: our PIHOP director had been scheduled to be the doorkeeper that night, a first for her. She volunteered because I had no doorkeeper, but Manuel had already sent her home earlier to rest after a long work day. Without these surprising events, here’s what would have happened:

• I would NOT have shown up during my scheduled time.

• There would be no worship leader during that time.

• The PIHOP director would have called me wondering what was going on, and I would have looked totally irresponsible.

When I told my wife about the ordeal that was avoided, she laughed. She could see me telling Cheryl, our director, “Trust me, Cheryl. I have never missed my scheduled time in the last 1.5 years... EXCEPT for tonight (the one time you doorkeep).” 😅

The beauty of this whole ordeal is that within a minute of me finding out my big blunder, God showed me that He Himself had orchestrated my coverage, in such a way that I was completely freed up to stay home and sleep, with a smile on my face. God had shown me His unconditional love, with an image to go with it: His love displayed like a bouquet of roses... without thorns. 

The beauty of this whole ordeal is that within a minute of finding out my blunder, God showed me that He had orchestrated my coverage, freeing me up to stay home and sleep with a smile on my face. God showed me His unconditional love, like a bouquet of roses without thorns.