Trusting God's Timing

“I was so tempted to make a phone call, or at least to pace the floor, but I knew that was wrong.” That was the first sentence from a chapter called Still Learning to Trust in Him in my Biography, The Path He Chose for Me. I realized today, that that experience from more than fifteen years ago still carries an impact. I could be pacing the floor today. I could be getting upset with someone for not preventing the delay, but this time I find myself a whole lot more ready to trust God for His perfect timing. The lessons I learned back then have actually been sinking in.

The chapter I am referring to came directly out of a blog post written at the time. Here’s how it went:

For a couple of weeks I had been praying that the Lord would find us a sofa bed. We occasionally had a minister coming to visit, but we had no bed for him to sleep on. We had a living room that could be totally closed off and private, but we needed a pull-out couch to go in it. We had hoped to find one at the local thrift store, but it seemed they just didn’t get them anymore.

I had almost given up when I remembered a different thrift store in a nearby town. It was possible that they could have something. I decided to give them a call. “Well, yes,” they said, “we do have one. We just set it outside for anyone who wants to take it away. If no one wants it, it’s going to the dump.”

“That’s got to be my sofa bed!” I thought. “Now if I could just get Bruce home, we could get it before someone else comes and takes it.” My reasoning made no sense, and I knew it, so I scolded myself and told myself to be patient.

I admit I was relieved when my husband came home, but then he had to call our son-in-law to come and help. We finally got to the store, and sure enough, there was the sofa. I wasn’t hugely impressed with it, but I thought, “if this is what the Lord has given me, I’m not going to turn it down.”

I left the loading to the men and went into the store to check out the bargains. A few minutes later, Bruce came in looking for me. “Come on outside for a minute,” he said.

There was a big truck parked in front of the store. Bruce explained. The movers were trying to get rid of a sofa bed and chair, but the store was not willing to take it. They had made a rule, no more sofa beds; the springs and mattress inside made them too heavy to move.

It was not a cheap sofa. It looked like new, it went with my decor, it was comfortable, and it was free; a gift from God with a chair thrown in for good measure. If we had gone fifteen minutes earlier, or fifteen minutes later, we would have missed it.

Pastor Duane always enjoyed sleeping on that sofa when he came to visit.

Today I am faced with another temptation to be impatient. My Russian Mennonite Trilogy is being printed in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The problem is that I live in Canada. To get to me, the books have to cross the border. That kind of mailing is super expensive. I know; I had twenty of them expedited to me in time to be here for a book signing a few days ago, and that cost almost as much as the book itself. Now I need more books.

The rest of Susie’s Story, and the other two in the series were supposed to be sent to someone who goes to my daughter’s church and has a house just across the border in Michigan. They were willing to have the books shipped to them. My daughter and husband are taking a trip down here next week. They were going to bring the books. That won’t be possible now.

Incredible as it may seem, I am at peace. These books are God’s project. To the best of my ability, I have worked with the talent to which He has entrusted me. He has a plan. Just as He did when we were looking for a sofa bed to bless one of His servants, He will work out His perfect timing in this situation as well.

The next time you are tempted to yield to frustration at God’s timing, I hope you too will remember my sofa bed story, or an experience of your own that will remind you that His timing is always perfect.

For the previous post see He shall be like a tree