God Is In Charge

Last night I was reminded once again that God absolutely is in charge. You know the saying, "Man plans and God laughs"? That definitely applied to me yesterday. I had committed to a business trip last minute that would take me out of town Tuesday night through Thursday afternoon of this week. For some reason, I didn't have a good feeling about it but I chose to ignore that feeling and kept forging ahead. God reached in along the way as I planned, trying to give me indications the timing was not right. Every time I tried to make the airline reservation, the computer would time out. Then when I finally got through to the site in a back door way, the airfare had increased. Not a lot, but enough to make me think. I decided to still move forward.

God reached in again to cause me to question my plans. My daughter became ill Monday and by late Tuesday afternoon, it was unclear she was going to school today. To complicate matters, both my husband and I were traveling so where I thought I covered the bases and had each of my girls staying with friends, it now appeared one of us would have to cancel our trip to stay home with Jenny. We talked and my husband graciously offered to change his plans if need be but again that gnawing feeling came through which I chose to ignore.

Well, God decided that if wasn't going to respond to his subtle nudging, He'd have to take more drastic measures. When I got to the airport last night, my flight had been delayed which meant I wouldn't make my connecting flight. They tried to get me on an earlier flight but their computer kept timing out. Once they got through that, the attendant needed an override which we had to wait a few minutes for. When the supervisor came over to enter the override, he said we're now too late to book that flight, we had just missed it by a "few" minutes! I now was beginning to sense I really was not supposed to go on this trip. The final answer came when my only option was to fly out in the morning but that would cause me to miss half of the meeting. Yes God, I heard you. For whatever reason, I am not supposed to go on this trip.

While I was disappointed I wouldn't make the meeting, I did feel comforted in knowing that God is there providing us signs all the time on what direction we should take. It's our decision whether or not to follow those signs. What was even more comforting was the reassurance that God will step in and make sure we're on the right path. He truly is there to protect us when we open our heart to Him.

A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps - Proverbs 16:9