Getting Job-ed
But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” Then the LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?” Exodus 4:10-11 ESV
And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD… Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips. Job 1:21, 2:10 ESV
“…(God speaking) remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose…” Isaiah 46:9-10 ESV
The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble. The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps. The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD. Proverbs 16:4, 9, 33 ESV
In him (Christ) we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. Ephesians 1:11-12 ESV
This will be a little story, and I want to see if you catch the theme.
Last Friday, my wife and daughter, and I were going to be traveling out of state to meet family. I arranged things perfectly to where I would have work done early (it took quite a bit of coordinating) and we would be able to leave early on Friday to get a jumpstart to the weekend.
So I get out of work early and head to pick up the rental car. I was a few minutes early (5 minutes), but typically that’s no big deal. I pull into the rental car agency and the car’s not in the lot. I speak to the agent and it’s being cleaned. Ok, no big deal… 5, 10, 30 minutes go by and I’m thinking “what is going on?! We got to get moving! It’s a holiday weekend!”
Finally, the car is ready. Ok, head home, change clothes, load up, pick up the family and we start on our trip. We pray for a safe trip before we head out. My wife is checking traffic in the next major city about 45 minutes away and it looks like a disaster. How can this be?? It’s a beautiful day! No storms, nothing. Come on!
Luckily, I’ve been in that city and the countryside of that city enough to know some of the backroads. Ok, they look good on GPS, let’s go! We get off the interstate, absolute dead stop traffic. Not even a way to turn around! We are stuck. An hour goes by, my daughter’s getting cranky, and daddy is getting hangry because I haven’t eaten. I’m about to lose my mind. Then emergency vehicles zoom by, then eventually 3 tow trucks pass with demolished vehicles. This couldn’t have happened but minutes before we were stopped because not even the traffic on GPS had updated. Then I began to feel a bit guilty for my selfishness.
We waited so long we just weren’t going to make it until super late in the night, so we called off the first night in order to just go home and leave early in the morning. That plan worked out perfectly and we had a great trip from there on. No big deal ultimately.
Providence
That night I woke up before we left and was really thinking back on all the events and leading up to us not being at that wreck site minutes (or potentially seconds) before: the inefficiency of the car rental place, packing the bags, red lights, etc. Could all of it be just a big coincidence? Possibly. But I feel if we take seriously the God of scripture who is in charge of the universe then we can’t possibly say there are just ‘coincidences.’ Could my family have been in that car wreck? Possibly, only God knows. This really opened my eyes to how weak my view of God’s Providence is in just everyday, seemingly unimportant scenarios. That morning, I was so thankful for God allowing me to even ask for forgiveness for my lack of love, submission, and reverential-awe of His complete Sovereignty.
As the scripture above notes, nothing is outside of God’s control, even difficult situations. I’ve felt this in my own life. I should have been one to completely see this as the car accident I was in back in November of 2020 has brought about one of the biggest turning points of my life (the start of this ministry). So even in mundane situations or inconvenient setbacks in our lives, God is still in charge, and there is a purpose. I’m very thankful that God allowed me to see that in the morning after that whole situation. Thank God for His setbacks.
-Austin
