This morning I read a very short story by Corrie Ten Boom, less than 150 words, And it challenged me. It reminded me of what I knew but had forgotten. Stories can do that can’t they? Jesus taught so many of His most important lessons with story. Can you imagine if He had just said “your neighbor is EVERYONE stupid!” instead of sharing the stories of the lost lamb, coin and son (Luke 15)? I wonder if David would have been as repentant if Nathan had just said “I can not believe how selfish you are! you should be ashamed of yourself” instead of sharing the story of the pet lamb (2nd Samuel 12)? stories change us. A great story can alter the course of a life.
Corrie’s story (I know you want to know!) tells of a time when she had 2 days before she had to leave the YMCA housing she was living in, she had no money and knew no one in America yet. She told the director that she knew God had a place for her, He just had not told her yet. The director then handed her a letter that she had overlooked earlier. It was an invitation to stay in an extra room sent by a woman who had heard her speak but that she had never met.
Her unwavering trust in God cuts me to the core! I so want to have a 5 year plan, she did not have a 5 DAY plan! I want to trust HIM like that don’t you? The problem is that none of us want to go the the school in which that kind of trust is taught, I know I didn’t! I went kicking and screaming like a scared child on the first day of kindergarten! most of us do not enroll willingly. If you find yourself there against your will today let me encourage you to trust Him to make a way where you can not see a way.
I have found that the hardest part of this is to be willing to follow the path that HE has cleared rather than the path that I have planned.
If you had told me 5 years ago that my kids would be going to public school, that my best friend would live in the same town, that I would be fired from a ministry that I had been a part of for almost 30 years, that we would have moved twice, that I would live in a home just yards from my favorite spot in Ohio and that we would be attending a church where my daughter and her husband are both on staff…. I would not have believed you for one second!
And yet all are true. You would think that after all that I would stop trying to predict and prepare for a future of my own design….you would think! And yet here I am again begging God to shine a huge spotlight over the next ten years instead of trusting the lamp at my feet, the lamp that shines in today’s step and no further. trusting HIS plan over my own.
Maybe you are there too?
And maybe if I share some of the stories of how HE has taken care of me and my family over the years it will encourage you and give you hope.
So in that spirit, and for that reason only, I share these with you…..
We are remodeling our kitchen on a very tiny budget. do it yourself style 🙂 I am trying to reuse what I have and use natural materials as much as possible. One high cost item is a copper sink. I REALLY wanted a copper sink but it was WAY out of our budget. As I began to look at other options I felt a nudge to pray for a copper sink for the same price as a normal sink. 5 days later I was at a resale building supply store looking for a garden window (still praying for that:-)) and saw a copper sink, it was marked $100 over my set amount. I asked the person there if they would take $100 less for it, they did!
We painted our house this summer, It took 15 gallons of paint and a large scaffolding I was really struggling to land on a color. What if we hated it once it was done! I asked God to help me pick a color. When I went to Lowes the next morning there were ten gallons of a dark green exterior paint on clearance. I had never thought of using green but the cheapskate in me could not resist the $25 for 10 gallons price tag. We LOVE the color. It is a better color than I could have ever picked on my own. And I friend loaned us the scaffolding which would have cost a LOT to rent.
Last year in Hobby Lobby I decided that I really NEEDED a $400 12 foot Christmas tree. It was such a silly want that I laughed at myself and said “well God if you want me to have a 12 foot tree you will have to provide it” I REALLY did not put much prayer or thought into it, no one NEEDS a 12 foot tree 🙂 But, and I still am shaking my head at this one, the next morning a 12 foot tree was on my facebook feed on a local garage sale site, it was less than 2 miles away and only $40.
a sofa I prayed for showed up in our garage days later
a friend offered their time share days after I complained to God that there was no way we could afford a vacation for the 7 of us.
2 pair of shoes for a teenage boy, the exact size and style he wanted for $10 at savers hours after telling him he would have to wear his old ones.
finding a flattering dress for my sons wedding on clearance just hours after crying because I hated how I looked in everything I had tried on.
God calls us to remember, HE often had HIS people build memorials to remind them to share the story of all HE had done for them. Because when we are reminded of all he has done for us it is so much easier to trust him with an uncertain future. To trust HIM to provide and to learn to trust HIM when He does not.
When we hold things loosely we give Him room to bless us in ways that only He can do and in ways we can not even imagine!
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.[a]