God Protects, Listens...and Has a Sense of Humor

It can be frustrating to wait for God's timing on things. In retrospect it's usually easier to see how his timing is always best, but that doesn't make it easier while you're waiting...especially when you have bills to pay and a lot of free time to wonder why he's taking so long.

In these instances I try to change my perspective. When a child is waiting for something, 15 minutes can seem like an eternity. An adult knows that it's well worth it to wait that 15 minutes, though, or whatever they're waiting for won't be quite as good (i.e. the food might not be cooked all the way through). I think it's the same way with God. We sit here wondering why it's taking so long for him to do his providing thing. Who knows - maybe the situation he has in mind isn't set up quite right yet, maybe we need to learn something before we're ready, maybe his way is something completely different than we expect...or maybe he knows that we'll appreciate the opportunity more if it doesn't just land in our lap.

These are also times I remind myself of all the ways I've seen God work in my life. In the past 10 years alone, I've seen God protect me, answer my prayers and use his timing to remind me he's in charge.

God protects:

Fairly soon after I got my license in high school, I was driving as my friends and I hung out. We had talked about playing pool earlier, and then ended up doing something else instead (I can't remember what). One of my friends decided to go home while my other friend and I decided to go to Starbucks. As we were on our way to the coffee shop, we realized my friend forgot her pool cue in the backseat. I'm not quite sure why we decided we needed to return it before going to get coffee, especially since we'd see her again soon, but we decided to make a detour to her house to drop it off. As we were leaving to head back out to Starbucks (and the busy street we had to take at commute time to get there), my brakes stopped working. Fortunately I was only going about 20mph, and was able to slow down as I turned the corner and park on the next street. Of course the cell phone we had for emergencies didn't get any reception (that was back when everyone didn't have one), but we also happened to be about 5 minutes by foot from my parent's house. Just think - the brakes could have given out when I was going twice as fast on a much busier street at commute time. We also could have been stranded much further away.

God listens:

There are two times I've asked God to heal Matt within the past year and a half, and both times he has answered my prayers exactly as I asked. The first time was at Mount Hermon (family camp) with my family last year. At the beginning of the week he wasn't feeling very well - like he was beginning to come down with something (I think it was Monday night). He asked if I would pray for him to get better, so I did. I didn't really think about it at the time, but when I prayed I asked that he would feel better by the next day. The rest of the night he still felt sick and, when he woke up the next day, he felt perfectly fine. This happened again right after Matt came back from a missions trip to Mexico. Of course, this was right after Swine Flu broke out (when everyone was panicking), and he came home feeling terrible with a fever. We took his temperature right away and it was 101. I prayed that God would bring his temperature down within the next few hours and help him feel better soon. Although it took a few days for him to feel better, I took his temperature again two hours later and it was down to 98.

God times things perfectly:

The most recent instance of God reminding me that he's in charge occurred within the past few months. I don't remember much about what was going on, but I know it was a Thursday and I was complaining to Matt about how I was hungry. Of course, he felt the need to point out that I sounded a lot like the Israelites in the desert grumbling to Moses about food, to which I told him I didn't see any manna lying around. About a minute later, the doorbell rang. Standing there was a UPS man holding a "Mannatech" box that happened to be full of food (Beef/Turkey Jerky, chocolate, etc). I knew my mom had sent a box, and she told me it would it would arrive on Friday. Apparently God had arranged for the package to arrive a day early at just that instant to remind me that he's in charge...and that he has a sense of humor.

I know thinking back to these situations and trying to change my perspective doesn't make time speed up, but it helps me stay calm and not worry. I know God is going to provide what we need when we need it and, in the meantime, he's listening to my thoughts and concerns...and most likely using this time to teach me something new.