The song lyric “unrevealed until it’s season, something God alone can see,” found its way to me this week from an email a coworker sent (Hymn of Promise). It spoke to me on several levels, especially reminding me of the lesson we learned as a young child that God has the whole world in His hands and He sees us exactly where we are in this season. How easy it was to sing words of faith we learned in elementary school when life seemed simple. How hard it is to keep singing them when the weight of adulthood surrounds you and you can’t see God moving where you need Him to move. But that’s just it, isn’t it? Jesus tells us to have childlike faith–a faith that open-heartedly believes based on who God is and not what life has done to us.
I recently found myself there, comparing what I wanted to happen in my life and what God was actually doing instead. I had been praying about mission trips this year, wondering which place I would travel to in 2024, and from the beginning Scotland was on my heart. In all honesty, it has been on my heart since 2020 when I was supposed to go but a little thing called Covid shut it down. Fast forward to this year and once again the idea of Scotland dangled within reach, but I had several options on the table, and like a lot of times, I wasn’t sure what exactly was going to pan out. I met with a friend for dinner one night who told me to “ask God not what place, but what people.” I nodded my head and told her I would, but in my heart, I knew what people–Scottish people. While no immediate doors opened, my stubborn heart was already imagining myself walking the streets of Edinburgh, hearing bagpipes and searching for the loch ness monster. Scotland was going to happen–I could just feel it. I told the Lord all about it. I envisioned the things we could do to help the church over there and had done practically everything except book the plane ticket.
Meanwhile, a different trip to Europe was searching for a new trip leader and I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me to offer my friend’s name. I couldn’t explain it. It was just something I felt in my heart. She gladly accepted the role and went to work praying for God to fill her team. Somewhere along the journey, she asked me if I would consider going on the trip. I admitted that it had piqued my interest but that I didn’t think I would be able to afford it and besides I was going to Scotland.
But as time went by, there was no movement on Scotland or any trip for that matter. I was beginning to think that maybe the answer was going to be to stay home this year. For several weeks, I continued seeking an answer until my friend reached out again and said she needed one more person to make a complete team but that she needed to know my answer the next day. It was a hard deadline that she wouldn’t be able to change. It seemed this opportunity kept rolling around and I kept resisting. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go, but I was so set on Scotland that I don’t think I could see anything else. There was also a matter of finances. It was going to take something of a miracle to be able to get the right price for this particular opportunity. I had been wrestling and maybe trying to push my way for several months, but as I climbed into bed that night, I truly surrendered it to the Lord. I told Him that I would go where He wanted me to go and yes I prayed for the people, not the place. “Lord, “ I whispered. “I just don’t see how I can do this trip unless the price goes down.” And then I gave him a number. “Lord, I could pay this much,” I said into the night air around me. “But you know I’ve wanted Scotland for so long and it would be great if you could work that out. (Hint, hint) The thing is, Lord, wherever it is, I need an answer now. I need to know something tomorrow.” I still believed at that moment somehow that Scotland was the answer. I imagined walking in the next day and being told the good news, but I also finally opened myself to possibilities other than what I wanted and gave God a chance to move.
The next morning when my alarm went off I picked up my phone and with sleepy eyes saw a text message from my friend leading the trip. It took me a minute to comprehend, but as I moved from dream-state to consciousness I wondered if I was still asleep. Right there among black letters in a gray bubble, the answer to my question stood waiting for me. My friend said that someone was willing to donate some of the cost of the trip if I wanted to go. The amount was almost to the dollar of what I said I needed to be able to go. And the offer had come through on the absolute last day to sign up. I was so bewildered at the generosity and the way God worked it out that I sat stunned as I tried to process it. Later that morning I asked my co-worker, “Do you think this is the answer God is giving me about which trip I should go on?” She gave me a look that said she thought it was quite obvious and responded “Uh, yeah.” And then she said, “I don’t know why we act surprised when God does things like this. It’s who He is.” I let that wash over me, let it fill my heart, and said yes. Yes to the thing that I didn’t think I wanted. Yes to the journey that God was calling me on instead of the one I had planned. And yes to believing that God has the whole world in His hands, including mine.
I share this story not to highlight my summer plans, but rather as an encouragement and to show how God is in the details. I think sometimes we try to work everything out the way we want instead of submitting to what God is trying to do. I know there have been so many times that I tried to force something only to see after it happened, that it wasn’t all I thought it would be. I am quick to say I am open to the Lord, but what I really mean is that I’m open as long as His way falls in step with mine. Proverbs 16:9 speaks to that when it says, “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” It’s hard to give up what we think is right, what our flesh desires, what our heart longs for. But what if on the other side of that surrender, there is something greater than we can see in this moment? What if that view is blocked by a wall we have built? What if we simply said, what if?
This story is a testament to how very gracious our God is, but it is also evidence of how God has things He is doing that we don’t understand. I’ve been reminded that those things aren’t purposeless, but they are taking us somewhere better than we can see on our own. God doesn’t just offer the quickest route, He firmly establishes the best path for our lives.
I’m not sure if this speaks to you today. I don’t know if you’ve been holding tight to something that the Lord has been trying to get you to let go of, but I know what my coworker said is true. Trustworthy, faithful, in the details–that is who God is. It may not look like we think. It may seem unfair. It may be a place we never would have chosen on our own. But how the Lord delights in surprising us. And you never know where a God plan will take you!
-Only Hope
🙏🏻
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