Perspective…all of us need a healthy dose of it from time to time. Last week God used the weather to deliver some to me.
When the day of our inaugural “Cinderella’s Ball” arrived, all of the weather “experts” were predicting significant rainfall, and the possibility of high winds and even tornado’s in our area. We at Faith For Fathers were frantically making final preparations for the event, and keeping one eye on the forecast. About 72 hours before the event, we reluctantly made the decision to go to our “rain plan.” This meant renting the other half of our venue, and doing the entire event inside. Although I knew it was the right decision, I can tell you as the founder of fledgling ministry that financially it was not an easy decision to make.
I must admit that I allowed this to completely consume and discourage me. I can’t tell you the number of nights my family drove to the event venue at the exact time our event would be happening, so that we could pray for God’s blessing on Cinderella’s Ball. Each and every time we prayed that God would grant us a night of beautiful weather. Even my 5-year old son knew to pray for “pwetty weather.”
I was so frustrated with God. He had been so faithful with everything else leading up to the event, so why would He not grant us this one thing? Sound familiar? I was in full-fledged pity party mode, and would have probably camped out there had I not received the following article on the very morning of our event.
Click to read, “The Lord Gives and the Lord Takes Away”
Suddenly, my worries about some raindrops and a few dollars seemed rather insignificant. This story reminded me that we are commanded to “give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thess. 5:18), and not just in the ones that we enjoy or understand. I immediately took a moment to pray for this sweet family, to thank God for my own family, and to reaffirm my willingness to trust Him with everything. As the day unfolded, I made the decision that I was at peace with whatever God had in store, and that we would praise Him no matter what.
As it turned out, the experts were wrong. There was no wind, no storm, not even a drop of rain. The event went amazingly well, and we were overwhelmed in how God moved.
We will never understand why God works in the ways that He does. I will never understand why He allowed the rains to fall in the life of this family, but kept the rain away from us.
What I do know is that God used this man and this circumstance to remind me to always “give thanks.”
May 12, 2014