This week began with shopping, eating, and Dayton touring with a dear friend who came in for a conference, and it got me thinking about how quickly and faithfully God works when we are obedient to give up control. About two and a half years ago I had to give up my dream of heading straight to University after graduating high school, moving away, and starting a new season of life. Instead, I blindly followed the ache that said I would be holding off for a year, working instead. At the time I had no clue why this was and mourned the year I considered “lost” on the timeline of life, but what I wasn’t aware of at the time (which is coincidentally how God often works) is that He was moving in unimaginable ways, and that He would show up at the most critical time. While it is impossible to know exactly what was happening behind the scenes, I am almost certain of specific and important things that may not have come about if I had shut out that ache and followed what I believed was right. I can see how different friendships may not have developed, had I gone to school a year earlier, ways my relationship with God Himself may not have been as rooted, and different conflicts that may not have come full circle. Take for example this lovely friend who drove approximately three hours just to spend the week together and attend a conference. I can pinpoint the day I met her and the reason we became friends in the first place, through a life group that, had I gone to school a year earlier in search of a different degree, I may have never joined. Going back further, going after what I wanted, I undoubtedly never would have met the one person who got me so involved, at least not in the most obvious way that God could have pointed her and my community out. And finally looking back another year I see my work family back home, the ones I can still come back and visit, the store I consider my safe place, and the manager who is more like a second mother. God works when we don’t know, in critical timing that at the moment we may not see as critical, and all we have to do is follow those aches. Isn’t that awesome?
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