Day 7: I Didn’t See That Coming

Word: Read John 16:33, Mt. 6:31-34

Summer driving in rural America usually means construction detours, roadblocks, and long lines waiting for a pilot car. It’s a good idea to add time to your schedule when traveling… just in case. Driving the 90-mile trek to an airport large enough to catch a flight on a real airline has no room for error. I had an important appointment in Los Angeles. Being a performing musician since I was 16, there was a hole in my life when I moved to a town with a population of 200 out in the middle of nowhere. I really felt like God wanted me to pursue my music for Him, so I snagged an audition with a Christian record label in LA. It was a big deal. I packed the night before and left plenty of time for any detours. Then Murphy’s Law kicked in.

About 25 miles down the road I missed the short cut to go “the back way.” I can’t even remember how I missed that turn. It was key to my plan. So plan B meant navigating the long way around on the highway. It was a half hour longer. My margin for error was shrinking. Then, I got stuck in a pilot car line. By the time I crept through the long stretch, I was way behind schedule. When I finally arrived at the airport parking lot my plane was boarding. In my rush I forgot my toiletries bag. With only an hour at my hotel before my audition, I was doomed to hotel hair products and no make-up. It seemed like the day couldn’t get any worse.

So how do you rebound from that? The quality of our spiritual journey is going to be determined by how we handle what we didn’t see coming. We like predictable; God likes detours. He’s not trying to make our lives harder, just deeper and richer. If I want to be used by God, I must be willing to be disrupted. I must be willing to relinquish control. When we try and hang on to control, we are displacing God’s work in our lives. We all need to take a lesson from Mary. Life is full of surprises. What are you going to do with them?

We may not always see it coming, but because we know disruption will come, we will not be surprised. Don’t bother with the why—it will derail you. Our job is to just embrace our life, to ask God to lead us through, and to always have our heart prepared for whatever comes our way. Let Jesus take the wheel—he knows the road that you need to take.

Wait in prayer: Do you dread disruption? Write out a prayer asking God to help you see disruption as an invitation to go deeper with Him and not as a negative. Ask Him to help you to let go when trouble comes. Use Matthew 6:33-34 as an inspiration.

Worship: Wanna Be Happy performed by Kirk Franklin. For a treat, search for this song on the Voices of Mobile YouTube channel.

Links:

Video Link to Wanna Be Happy by Kirk Franklin

Video Link to Wanna Be Happy from Voice of Mobile

Link to sign up to get your free review copy of The Mary Answer.

Post-script: It never did work out with the record company in LA. But I learned a lot from the trip!