When I was a freshman in college, I found myself in a predicament that required me to turn to someone who I thought would probably not be inclined to help me—God.

I was visiting some close friends at a college about three hours away from my university. The weekend mostly consisted of using recreational drugs and partying. On Sunday morning I overslept and missed my ride back up to Seattle. I was pretty panicked because I had a very important choir rehearsal back on my campus Sunday afternoon. If I missed this rehearsal, I knew I would probably be kicked out of the choir, which was highly esteemed and difficult to get into in the first place.

It was legal to hitchhike in Oregon, and my friend drove me to the nearby Oregon-Washington border and let me out close to the freeway on ramp. My plan was to hitchhike back to my university and hopefully get to my rehearsal on time. Unfortunately there were several other hitchhikers on the same ramp, standing in the drizzling rain. My situation looked dire.

It had been a while since I had prayed about anything. Although I grew up in a family that relied on the teachings of Christian Science, my freshman year in college offered lots of distractions. I was pretty sure God would not be inclined to hear any prayers from me during this time. Nevertheless, I was desperate. I dusted off a truth I had learned in Sunday School. I remembered the idea that, as children of God, we're always in our right place. If God can never be late or in His wrong place, neither can His children.

That was the extent of my prayer. It was the best I could do. And I knew that if I had any chance of God's help, it wasn't a question of pleading with Him to get me to Seattle. Rather, it was an acknowledgment of His ever-presence that would get me to where I needed to be. But underlying simple prayer was a powerful Principle that governs the whole universe. In the universe of Spirit, there is no such thing as time. There is no "here" or "there," "early" or "late"—just "NOW," where every idea of God is perfectly positioned, placed, and purposed. This is a spiritual fact that allows us to say with certainly that we're "always in our right place."

Shortly after my prayer, I heard a voice from behind me. I turned around, and a man was motioning me over to him. He was parked alongside a frontage road. I walked over to him. He asked me where I was headed. I told him my tale, and he said, "Well, we live just up the road, but we'll take you to Seattle." I was stunned. He was offering to drive four hours, roundtrip, from where he lived—for my benefit. This was either manna from heaven or something I should be suspicious of. I decided to believe the former.

When I got in the car, his wife smiled at me. I noticed there were quite a few boxes on the floor of his car. As we got onto the freeway, the man said, "Son, you may not believe this, but the Lord told us to pick you up." Again, somewhat stunned, yet realizing what was happening I said with a big smile, "Actually, I do believe it!" They took me all the way to my university, and I was only slightly late for my rehearsal, which resulted in a mild reprimand—but no eviction.

This was a watershed experience for me. Even the harshest cynic couldn't say that this was a coincidence. It turns out these people had their own deep faith in God. The boxes in the car were Bibles, but the couple in the car never preached to me. We just had a pleasant conversation about our beliefs and established a friendship that lasted for the duration of my time at the university.

I learned a couple of important lessons from this experience:

1. God doesn't care (or even know) about our human mistakes and detours. All He knows is what is true about us—our sinless nature. Therefore, there is never a time when God won't answer an honest prayer, no matter how simple or short.

2. God doesn't answer our prayers according to our religion. These people who gave me a ride were honest, loving people with unselfish hearts who happened to belong to a religion different from mine. We were both honestly appealing to God in our own way, and I truly believe that God hooked us up in a way that could never have been orchestrated in any other way.

Peter Sauers
Boca Raton, Florida