I had it all planned out.
I was on a mission to find my “perfect Christian” wife. So I went to every evangelical church in Atlanta, Georgia and San Angelo, Texas ( Pretty random, I know, but I was in Air Force training at the time ) looking for Mrs. Right.
I would scope out the College & Career Sunday School class… if she wasn’t there, I’d move on to the next church. I would wait anxiously for the singer to come up during the offering, “she” would be the one with the angelic voice of pure gold and the light streaming from her hair. If she was a Sunday School teacher that loved kids or played on the intramural soccer team, bonus points.
But all that was my idea. What I really had to do was wait for God’s timing.
And God came through: he brought me on a split-second encounter with the woman that would eventually be my wife. [And it happened in the most unlikely of places: a dance club on the Riverwalk in San Antonio. But that’s a story for another day]
Photo: Andrew Lukianiuk Photography(Creative Commons)
In the western world, we’re an impatient bunch. Maybe it’s just me, but I have a hard time waiting for God’s plan in my life, waiting for that “next step” in my life. If it doesn’t happen fast enough for me, I’ll make it happen.
During a relaxing vacation, where God usually downloads all kinds of info and vision to me, was the perfect setting for him to tell me, “It will happen in MY timing.” (You’d think I would get the idea after a while and take more intentional time off, but I don’t.)
It will happen.
In His timing.
I was stressed beyond belief that I wouldn’t find a wife. Hormones raging and life goals calling, I knew I needed a strong, beautiful, God-serving woman at my side. I knew she was out there, I was just too much in a rush to see her. When I took time to relax, have fun, and let God move (in a dance club?!?), she showed up.
So our lesson is this: relax. Slow down. Don’t try to always do it under our own steam, our own strength. Wait for Him to come through. God wants you to have that wife as much as you do. God wants you to have that job… God wants you to have that breakthrough… God wants you to have that healing… God wants you to see your destiny… even more than you do.
Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;
he’s the one who will keep you on track. Proverbs 3:5-6 MSG