We went on a big roller coaster ride a few days ago, and I've been dying to sit down and write about it.
It started when we finally decided to buy our plane tickets.
We'd spent hours researching these tickets. I mean, they're super crazy expensive. I guess it costs a lot to fly to, well, literally the other side of the earth. We researched and researched - fly from the east coast, the west coast, weekday, weekend, no stops, 2 stops, 5 stops, 7 million stops, etc... We had finally made a decision. Once the decision was made we just had to wait until we had raised the nearly $8000 it would take to buy the tickets! That was another reason we wanted to save money - it wasn't our money! It was yours - well, God's - money! So, we waited. And finally we raised just enough to buy those tickets.
So we decided to do it. By the time we finally found the right website and got it all set up it was nearly 11pm on Saturday night. That's pretty late for me these days. But I wasn't tired. I was thrilled. Enjoying the ride! We filled in all the information required for international travel.... names, birthdays, passport information, special seating and meal requests, and who knows what else I typed in that night on my adrenaline high. Then we got to the bottom of the page - to that big "purchase" button. Before I continued, Stephen grabbed my hand and said we should pray about it. Guess that's why the men are the spiritual leaders, huh? Do they have less adrenaline? Oh, I'm so glad he was there. We prayed about it and then I gladly let him do the honors of clicking that all important button.
It went to that white screen with the "processing.... processing.... processing...." image and I joked that if it didn't work I guess we wouldn't go to Cambodia. Haha, I'm so funny!
It didn't work.
God must have a sense of humor. He needed to show me that His plan is greater than mine. See, we were charging these very expensive tickets to southeast Asia on a debit card and well, you can't do that. You can't just use a debit card to buy something like that unless you approve it first. Not at my bank anyway. I'm thankful for that I guess. But I wasn't at that time. See, it was Saturday night at 11pm and I would have to wait until Monday for the bank to open. What a tough roller coaster ride this was turning in to!
But we waited. I didn't sleep of course. My body laid down but my mind was racing. It continued like that for two days. And Monday it got worse. See, on Monday the price of the tickets had gone up by over $2000 for the 4 of us. That was heartbreaking. Like I said, we had done hours of research and we tried to do it right. It wasn't our fault the bank wouldn't let us use the debit card for the purchase Saturday night! At this point I was really mad at the bank for that!
The ride continued. Monday night it showed those tickets as unavailable. I assumed someone else had taken my place on the plane. The seats were sold out, I guessed. We decided to wait yet another day, I guess thinking magically the plane would stretch and more seats would appear or something.
Late Tuesday night we signed on to the website again in what was becoming our nightly ritual. I was prepared for utter disappointment. But, to my surprise (and note I say "my" - Stephen has much more faith in these things than me), the tickets were not only available but they were the LOWEST PRICE we'd seen them yet! So we filled in all the forms again. And yet again, we prayed before clicking the button.
But this time I didn't joke about not going if it didn't work out. Because God had shown me that He knew better than me when we were supposed to buy these tickets. And sure enough, before the third "processing" had come up, it popped up that our flights were confirmed.
It didn't work the first time we tried because God knew more than we did. The hours we spent researching were but a blink of an eye in God's infinite wisdom. He knew when we needed to buy them and where we needed to do it. And I learned AGAIN to trust in Him.
Let's hope next time I am not so slow to remember He's in control. I don't need sleepless nights and an emotional roller coaster to remind me who's in control of this.
I just need to trust HIM day by day.
And oh my goodness, we have plane tickets. This is for real, people!!!! I'm so excited!
Psalm 37:3 Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
ReplyDelete4 Take delight in the LORD,and he will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the LORD;trust in him and he will do this:
6 He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.