Sometimes I get a hankering. It just pops into my head like an idea that won’t go away. The other night, for example, it was getting later in the evening and I suddenly felt like some popcorn.

After Easter and all the candy I had to inhale during that holiday, I needed a break from sweet snacks. I was looking for something that would satisfy and I was thinking of watching a movie … the two kind of go hand in hand.

When I go to the theatre I still have a natural instinct to purchase a bag of popcorn. It doesn’t matter to me that I have to draw on my line of credit to afford a bag, there is something inside of me that urges me up to the counter.

Personally, I don’t even like theatre popcorn anymore. I used to get it with extra butter, but now it is a hot petroleum bi-product, I think. Whatever it is they put on the popcorn, I find it sits in the bottom of my stomach and begins to re-pop about half way through the movie.

I don’t like microwave popcorn either.  How can something that can be left in a bag for 10 to 15 years be any good? It’s quick and you can’t really mess it up, but it tastes like the chemicals they use to preserve it – probably the same ones the Egyptians used to  wrap a mummy!

I much prefer the popcorn we make at home with our air popper. I’m pretty good at getting the popper out, filling it up with corn kernels, and getting a bowl out for the popcorn to fall into. But that is about where I like to stop.

I’ve completed the process before, but if my wife Lily is around I like her to put the butter and salt on.  There is an art to it, and she has a special touch. It may go back to her college days when making popcorn in her dorm room was a nightly ritual.

When I do the butter and salt there’s always a fear that I’ll use too much or not enough.  But with Lily, it seems she gets it perfect every time. The other night I convinced her to help me. The popcorn was perfect. Good popping on my part!

Then I found a movie to watch and proceeded to pretty much devour the bowl of popcorn all by myself. I’m not sure it was any better for me than a hunk of my Laura Secord cream-filled egg or a handful of brightly coloured jelly beans, but it satisfied … glad I acted on that hankering!

Here’s the thing: Like I got a hankering for popcorn, sometimes a name of someone or an idea pops into our heads. Many times we dismiss it and go on doing what we are doing. But it may be that God has put that person on our minds. And, like any good desire, we should act on it. It just might be the case that God is calling you to pray for that person or contact them.

That’s life!

Paul

Question: Have you ever had a name pop into your head and it turned out that the person needed prayer right at that time? What did you do?  Leave a comment below.