God's Timing II

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God,which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."--Philippians 4:6-7

Have you ever prayed for something so much ("Do not be anxious about anything," but it's our nature to be) and thought that God wasn't listening because you either didn't get an answer or the answer wasn't what you were hoping for? How about when you've wanted something so badly and thought that you needed a response immediately ("but in everything, by prayer")? I used to think that when I prayed for something, especially if it was something that would positively benefit myself or anyone involved, God would honor that prayer and respond accordingly ("and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. " I admit, it's very difficult to be thankful in times of conflict and suffering. Before I came to faith in Christ and even early on in the faith, I can't say I was thankful for the pain.). Was I proven wrong! It's not that God doesn't want us to live peaceful, exciting and joy-fulfilled lives, but He wants better, He wants the BEST for us ( And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." Isn't that what we want?). Let's face it, we don't always know what's best for us. How many times do we choose a friend or significant other and know that in the midst of it, it wasn't the healthiest relationship to be in? Yet, somehow in our own stubbornness and desire, we think at the onset of the relationship we've made a great choice or maybe we know we've made a poor decision, but are too stubborn and/or prideful to change our minds.

What do you think? How many times have we found ourselves saying, "If I had just waited, I would/could/should have..." ? What are some of your could haves, should haves, would haves had you just waited for God's best? Ugh... Errrrr.....that's how I feel when I miss out on God's choices for me due to my lack of patience and feeling the need to control my own circumstance.

Here's my should have, could have, would have: If I had just waited for God's best and His timing, I would have abstained from being involved in the relationships I chose. I wish I had known sooner that I didn't need anyone else's validation but God's. Ugh...Errr..... but, thank God!

God's Timing

Oh too funny! I couldn't stop laughing while reading this story. It helped knowing what your grandma looks like. I visualized the whole thing! Excellent. I am 100% confident milk was coming out of God's nose as he was laughing (or you get my point.) I'll post a picture of a laughing Jesus. It's how I most like to think of him because I think he must laugh at me on a daily basis.

~~Here's a quick story about God's timing. I drove over an hour to pick my sister up several days ago. She lives over twelve hours away, but her friend had driven her to just over an hour away. My daughter, B had told me over and over in the morning that she wanted us all to wait for her as she exited the bus. She'd been feeling a little sad she wasn't going to have as much time with my sister so this was going to be the meaningful compromise, to have all of us eagerly awaiting her return from school.

I allowed over forty minutes of time padding to get home. We had plenty of time to get back. But as life goes we were held up in two stubborn patches of traffic. During the first slow down I got angry, pounding the steering wheel while flinging frustrated phrases at the windshield. I still wondered and held onto the possibility that we might make it home on time. Finally, when traffic cleared and the cars sped up my hope grew. Yes, I thought...we can make it.

Then, traffic crunch number two and with it came the tears, a call to a neighbor to make sure B would be escorted off the bus and questions thrown up to God. I so wanted to be there for her and I felt such deep frustration as a mother that it just wasn't going to happen.

It wasn't until we were a minute away from the house that I remembered sometimes B's bus driver goes one of two different ways. There was a freakish chance he'd chosen to go the way that would potentially, though doubtfully, but still potentially mean the bus had not dropped her off yet. I held onto that tiny flicker of hope, but didn't put much weight in it.

We pulled into the driveway and I could see our wonderful neighborly grandma lady waiting...WAITING! The bus had not yet come. We made it. WE MADE IT. One minute later the bus screeched to a stop.

Now I realize this may seem like such a small thing for me to have gotten upset about, but it was important for me to be there and somehow we made it. I attribute that somehow to God's perfect timing!

Hugs were had by all!

*photo by flickr

Here's to Life!

Thanks for the comment! I could not agree more with your last statement about making the most of each day we are blessed with. I had an incident that happened yesterday that made me chuckle the entire time until I was in the car (you'll see). It was a rather ordinary "lemon" beginning experience, but definitely a "lemonade" ending one!

Yesterday afternoon, I brought my 86 1/2 year old grandmother to her daily radiation treatment (she has cervical cancer) that is located on the ground level of the hospital. Afterwards, I needed to bring her to the second floor to get the nurses to dress her surgery site from the PCN tube procedure that was done last Friday. Since she has trouble walking long distances, I asked her if she wanted to be in a wheelchair so that I could transport her to the second floor. She agreed and I quickly walked us to the nearest elevator, which was 4 minutes away. Before getting to the elevators, I have to first get through a set of automatic doors. Thankfully, the doors were open already so I whizzed through and headed for the elevators. Upon reaching the elevators, I pressed the up arrow button and suddenly got shocked! The spark was both surprising and slightly painful. (If there is one thing that I try to avoid in life, it would be getting shocked from friction action!) I then looked at the wheelchair unable to figure out why I was getting shocked. The part of the wheel that was touching the ground was rubber and so was the handle. In any case, I was going to do anything to try to avoid touching metal while I pushed the wheelchair.

After being shocked, I played it cool and just waited for the elevator to open and once it did, I wheeled Grandma into it and off we went to the second floor. After we met with the nurses to get her surgery site dressed with more tape and cloth, the inevitable was upon us. We had to go back to the ground level by taking the elevators down and walking back through the automatic double doors. Oh how I dreaded it! So here we were again, walking towards the elevators only now I was not going to touch the arrow button. I did the unthinkable. I asked Grandma to do it. She asked me why I didn't want to do it and I told her the reason and so she willingly went over to press the button. From the moment her fingers touched the metal button, she got a major shock. The shock was so intense for her that she threw her body back quickly away from the buttons. While she did this, all I could do was laugh out loud and uncontrollably! The shock happened so fast and strong that she nevereven got to press the down button hard enough to fetch us an elevator. Now what were we going to do? Well, Grandma had this brilliant idea to use her small handbag to press the button. She took the edge of the bag and directed it towards the down button and pressed on it. It took about four tries before she was able to press the button hard enough with her bag. All the while, I was still there laughing hard.

We boarded the elevator and made it to the ground level. Now I was thinking about our next major obstacle---the automatic double doors ( At this point, I still hadn't recovered from the hilarious moment on the second floor). You see, in order for the doors to open, you have to press a six inch square button, and yes, it was metal. As we walked through the long corridor and towards the double doors, I was hoping that someone would either be on the other side of the doors trying to get through or that someone would be slightly ahead of us to press the button. Unfortunately, there was no one doing either. Again, Grandma and I refused to touch the button. She instead applied the handbag technique on this big button. She again held the edge of her handbag and held it up to the button. Only this time, the handbag technique didn't work. I guess the handbag was too soft. Now what?! Well, as she sat and I stood there cracking up, a gentleman was walking into a set of doors just to the side of the double doors. He noticed that we were stuck there trying to figure out this button dilemma (he probably thought it was our first time using these doors). He then asked if we needed help and I said giggling and almost too much that I had to collect myself to say desperately, "Oh yes, please. My grandmother and I don't want to get shocked again and so we don't want to directly press the open button." Forget embarrassment, I was almost in tears from laughing at how silly all this was and how silly we must have looked! Phew!

Yesterday was such a great day! It was a great day because I was able to be in the moment and laugh at something that seemed so silly and trivial without caring who was around and what others thought. I was grateful for such a moment. Wow, I wonder if God was laughing as well...

Not Knowing "When"

First off, I just want to let you know that there are so many reasons why I appreciate our friendship. I think one of the top reasons is your honesty. I've always been drawn in by people who are willing to put it out there even if it dangles out there awkwardly and uncomfortably. With you, I know I'm getting the truth. I don't think there has ever been a time in our friendship when I've doubted your sincerity. To me, that is a treasure. So thank you.

About your comments on the boy whose parents (I think mom, mostly) were refusing treatment for him, I'm grateful how you worded your response. I especially liked the part about how we try to go around God's sovereignty.

This is a hot topic for me because, as you know my father has lung cancer and is refusing any medical help from this point on. I grapple with his decision, but am in full understanding I cannot control him and am not entirely sure what I would do if I were in his situation. I am trying to come at the whole thing from a non-judgmental viewpoint, expressing God's love through the whole thing. I won't lie though, it's hard. Not expressing God's love, that for me isn't hard. It's hard to watch someone die. It's hard to not know "when".

I think what I'm learning most in this circumstance is that none of us ever know "when". There's a verse that says something like that. It's pure truth. With that knowledge I just want to make every day count. I want my life to mean something for him and his glory. Surrendering control and my "need to know" things is all part of learning to glorify him.