Not me, of course. I’m retired. Well sometimes my brain is working overtime, especially when I’m trying to fall asleep at night. But no, I’m talking about God working overtime. In my life.
Let’s start with the house I just sold. It had been used as a rental and was in rough shape. Rougher than we even knew. But God had given me the price to ask for it months before, so in spite of people’s good intentions to help me increase my profit, I stuck to that price. When I finally was about to list it, the renter – of all people – found a buyer. Within days, actually. She even (unbeknownst to me) showed it! And he wanted it. Right then and there. Cash. Other than the little bits and bobs involved in the deal, done. Turns out the buyer is someone who I couldn’t have hand-picked, so perfect is he for this particular house, he HAD to have been God-picked.
And as time went on, I was looking for some strapping young lads to hire to help move stuff. MY plan was to rent a big dumpster and a trailer, have aforementioned strapping young lads take 95% of the contents to the dumpster (unless they wanted some of it, such as the furniture), and load the rest into the trailer for us to bring to a nearby storage unit to further sort. GOD’s plan was for the buyer’s teenage son, if I rented the dumpster, to empty out the house, loading our “keeper” stuff into the buyer’s own trailer, driving it down here, and then unloading it into the storage unit! And of course, God’s plan was so much better!
There was also trouble with the renter. She wouldn’t leave. The day he took possession, there she was, sitting in front of the TV, nary a box packed or a plan in place. (This was June 30th – a full TWO MONTHS after the move-out date I had given her, with 7 weeks’ notice, plus a free month’s rent to use as a security deposit elsewhere, to vacate!) This situation could have put the kibosh on the whole deal. But the God-supplied buyer moved HER out also that day, loading her belongings and taking them to a storage facility of her choosing, and then dropping her off at a friend’s house!
And then there was the whole Tyros5 situation. I wasn’t sure. It didn’t seem right to spend part of the “house money” – which we had already allocated elsewhere – on something else. It is something I’d wanted for a number of years, sure…and I likely wouldn’t have that amount all at one time again in the future. But Pete, of all people, understood that this was a lot more than a keyboard to me, for a lot of other reasons. Once he expressed that and asked my thoughts, I felt the peace of God about buying it. (one of the many blessings of having an Ephesians 5: 25-33 marriage) BUT then there were problems, and I started to doubt. It was a weekend when I tried to complete the purchase, and I didn’t realize that my bankcard had a limit on it; I thought that since I had the money to cover the charge, that was all I needed. Apparently not. So I contacted the 24/7 customer service line and was given another number to call where I was told they couldn’t help me. By this time it was pretty late on Saturday, I was tired and my brain was starting to misfire. So I went to bed.
The next morning I told Pete I was rethinking the whole thing, it wasn’t going smoothly so I wasn’t so sure anymore… He picked up his phone and called the credit union’s number, then handed it to me. I learned that I’d been given bad information the night before. This gal was SO helpful, took my information and told me, “Oh that’s great, I buy all of my instruments from Guitar Center, they’re so good to deal with aren’t they!” WHAT ARE THE CHANCES?? OK, God, I got it…time to stop doubting. She was able to approve my transaction, and within hours I had the keyboard ordered!
Oh, yeah, and of course, the helper thing…a few months ago when I realized it was time to start thinking about needing a helper for various things around here that I can’t do, or have a lot of trouble doing…I got the clear message in my spirit with which I’m so familiar to put up a post at a local Amish store. So I made it up and Pete took it down there and hung it up. Several weeks passed, no responses. So he moved it to a different Amish store that was just a couple hundred feet away. Still nothing. But we left it there, I was so certain that was what I was to do.
A couple of days ago I had to reboot my phone, something I always forget to do until I can barely use it. When it came back up there was a blue dot on the phone icon; I couldn’t find what it meant. Purely “by accident” (yeah, right!) yesterday I hit a wrong button and the V/M icon showed up, with the blue dot. So I tapped it and found a voice mail – from July 14th!!! Someone was answering my note from the store! Last night I returned her call, and she sounded lovely. Also, though I hadn’t mentioned that I was also praying for someone to help Pete with a few things around outside, she happened to tell me that she and her husband often worked together for people!! THEN at the end when I asked if she had any questions, she mentioned that she doesn’t use chemicals as she is sensitive to them, but cleans with vinegar and other natural things…PERFECT for someone who has parrots and therefore also has always used vinegar and other natural things!
Oh there’s so much more. Living for God, under His wing, is a constant lifestyle. It can be as natural as breathing, the continual communication and guidance. When it doesn’t work, though, it’s because I’ve cut it off. Either through sin, disbelief, putting my own thoughts ahead of His, straying from the Word and/or fellowship with the saints, etc. And I had strayed dangerously close to that place recently, with my thoughts on the horrors going on in the world and the country, and my own brain/pain/mobility issues instead of Him. It happens and every Christian I know has been-there-done-that. It’s called “me first”…
Anyway, I had the thought yesterday that these things were so very obvious, so clear, that even an atheist would have to see it. Maybe, maybe not – there were MANY who saw first-hand Jesus’ miracles and still didn’t believe. But at the very least, I had to share them with you.
Thanks for reading!
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