Suddenly

I was sitting in church listening to the pastor finishing up his message explaining that, no matter what, we should conduct ourselves in all things to glorify the Lord. This is what Paul said, Phil 1:27a ‘Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.’ In other words, regardless of what happens in life we need to react to those circumstances in a Christ like manner.

He finished up by saying this, “I want to warn you that something is going to happen, something that you did not see, something that appears out of no where and will shake you to your very core. I say this because it’s my responsibility to let you know that not everything in life is easy or simple.” As he concluded that statement, the Lord spoke to me in that moment, I knew something unexpected was coming our way.

The next day I received notice from the leadership of one of the series we work with that there is a conflict with another contractor. While nothing has been decided at this point, it’s always disconcerting to have this type of situation arise in the off season, especially as you start preparing for the new year.

As my wife and I talked through the situation, we realized that we’ve done nothing wrong, there is nothing we can do to change the situation and most importantly, none of this caught our Lord by surprise. If the decision goes against us, the Lord will provide for us in other ways. While this may have happened suddenly for us, the Lord knew it was coming long ago and has already prepared the solution.

As I close, I’m reminded of the passage about the birth of Jesus, Luke 2:9 ‘Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them.’ The birth of the savior had been foretold for centuries. What came suddenly for us had been planned for thousands of years. So it is with our life as we walk with the Lord, stuff happens. When it does, we can rest assured He already has it figured out. We just need to wait for Him to reveal His plan.

Blessings