God Can Handle It

Have you ever been looking forward to something, been anticipating it for months, making lots of plans, checking off your list of things-to-do to be ready, and then when the event comes around you can't believe how many things are going wrong?

That's exactly what happened to me last night!

Several months ago I was invited by my sister-in-law's MOPS group to come and speak for them today. My sil has told me so much about this group of women, how much they love God and how they've ministered to her, and I was soooo looking forward to being a part of this meeting. In order to avoid morning Detroit traffic, we planned that I would come and spend the night at my sil's house and we'd go over to the church together in the morning.
As I was getting my things together to leave last night, I realized didn't have my accompaniment CD. I sing twice during my talk, and when I was speaking Tuesday I forgot to get the CD out of the sound system before I left. I couldn't believe I had forgotten the CD! What was I going to do? I have cassettes with the tracks, but my sil told me previously her church only had a CD player in the sound system. I knew I wasn't going to sing a capella, and the songs are such an important part of my presentation I knew I didn't want to cut them. Needless to say, I was crying. Then I caught a glimpse of hope.
My sil's church is in the same city as where I'd spoken Tuesday. I figured if I called the coordinator of that other group we could arrange a way for me to get the CD from her. However, at that moment I wasn't in a very good frame of mind, so my wonderful husband called her for me. I went upstairs to get my bag and when I came back he was finishing the conversation. I thought, Well, that didn't take long. And he said, "It's a good thing you didn't make that call." He went on to explain this woman noticed I had forgotten the CD so she grabbed it and was going to mail it to me, but she was currently on vacation in Indiana! No chance of meeting up with her to get that CD.

That's when I really panicked.

I grabbed the cassettes and my boom box. Maybe we'd need to make do with that. In my heart, I knew God could handle this situation and it probably would all work out fine. But I couldn't hold back the tears that wanted to flow. (I had also just had a difficult experience with Joshua, which took waaaaay too long and left me rushing around packing my things and making dinner for Brian and the kids for tonight, since I won't be home. Plus, it's just about that time, so I'm sure PMS was playing with my emotional stability...) So, in tears, I took my things out to the van. Brian and the kids met me at the door, told me they loved me, and sent me on my way.

I was flustered but I believed God could handle things. As I drove, I sang and prayed a lot. I tried to remember what is True. God loves me - even when I'm an emotional, irrational mess. He is good - no matter what my circumstance says. He is able to do all things - even when I can only see the impossibility of a situation. Then I called my sil to tell her about the missing CD.
Ahhhh, what a breath of fresh air she is! She told me that she was pretty sure the church did have a cassette player in the sound system after all, and though they'd never used it a MOPS she was sure they'd be able to figure it out. Then she asked if I had any other problems I'd like her to solve for me. We could spend all night there! I smiled, relieved the music wasn't going to be an issue, and told her I'd see her in a little while. And on I drove, thanking God for handling this situation.

I arrived at my sil's house, and just when I thought everything was calm and settled, a new question popped into my head. Where's my bag? I was getting out of the van and I saw my outfit that I was going to wear for speaking, and my bag with all my notes and other speaking things, but where was my bag with all my other stuff? My shirt, shoes, earrings, make-up, toothbrush, and all those other essentials? I couldn't believe it! When Brian and the kids had met me at the door, I completely forgot to grab that bag. I thought I was all done with fires for tonight!
I tried to evaluate how important all that stuff was. My sil suggested I could go barefoot at the meeting. I could use her make-up. I thought about it, didn't want to do the barefoot thing, and then I realized I really did need that shirt! The thought of driving all the way back home seemed crazy, so I called my husband to see if he would meet me half-way. Of course, by now you know I have the best husband in the world, and he was more than willing to do that for me.
As I stood there on the phone with him, exhausted from not sleeping well the night before, my mother-in-law piped up and said she'd drive out to meet him. Do I have the best family, or what??? So they picked a meeting spot, and arranged to put out another one of my fires.

This morning when I woke up, I breathed in deeply and thanked God that His mercies are new every morning. My bag was in the hallway, so I hopped into the shower and was extra thankful when I got to put on my own deoderant, make-up, shirt and shoes. I remembered again that God wasn't in a panic last night when I walked out of the house without that bag, or Tuesday when I left the church without my CD. He knew it all would happen, and He was all over it!

What really brought me joy was to see how He was all over the MOPS meeting this morning. Yes, the details of the cassette deck working and the Power Point operating properly were great. But as I spoke and looked out across the room at other moms, some in tears and others just nodding their heads in understanding, I thanked God for bringing these women and for speaking to their hearts.
After the meeting, I loved hearing stories of how God had encouraged these women through my talk. I was able to pray with some of them. Again, I was thankful that God uses the hard times we go through to bring hope and encouragement to others who are going through the same thing. He knows just what He is doing, and I love that He can handle every situation.