Last week, we talked about change. Abbi wrote about processing change and the importance of having a good support system when change is occurring. Katelyn wrote about the inevitability of change and used the analogy of a plane train, inviting us to hold onto God during change just like how you hold onto the pole on the plane train.
I do not have much experience with plane trains, although I have been on the one in the Atlanta airport (and now want to go on it with Katelyn). I tend to fly from a big international airport to a small airport that has no need for trains. But I do know railroad trains. I do know one thing about trains (plane or railroad) and it is that there’s a schedule. You know when to expect the train and what the destination is.
Sometimes I wish God had a schedule to share. Like, at the beginning of each year, I can meet up with God for coffee or tea and he can go over the plan. God can walk me through from January to December, detailing what I should expect in 2025. Wouldn’t that be lovely?
I remember after I graduated from college, I could not find a job. I was living with a friend and my bank account was dwindling. My parents gave me a date and said if I could not find a job by then, I would have to move in with them because I could not afford to live without a job. I remember it was Christmastime and just crying. I was looking for a job, I was putting in my applications and turning in my resumes, but to no avail did anything take. I now had an expiration date of two months. I remember asking my mom why I was having a hard time. I forgot everything she said to me, but one thing stuck out and I have shared and thought it many times over.
Theologian Henry Blackaby once said it. Blackaby and his wife Marilyn Blackaby were very big in the Southern Baptist world, he wrote Experiencing God, and died last February with Marilyn dying in 2022. He said, “God is never late.” Then his wife cutting in with, “Yeah, but he’s never early.”
God is never late. But he’s never early either.
My deadline to get a job was the end of February 2017. I got a job at the beginning of February 2017 and stayed in my town to rebuild.
At that time, I did not know why God made me wait. If it were up to me, I would have gotten a job a long time ago. Actually, in retrospect, I would have gotten a different job and my life would have looked completely different. My life would have consisted of getting a job as a speech-language pathology assistant, getting into grad school for speech pathology, and becoming a certified SLP. But that was not God’s plan.
Three months later, a few days before my birthday, I was walking home from having lunch in a local Lutheran church that was having an outreach event and inviting people indoors for lunch. I kid you not, everyone I spoke to was either a social worker, did something in social work, or wished they had gone into that field, and as I walked back to my apartment, I stopped in my tracks and said out loud, “Social work sounds fun.” Then with my pulse racing, I ran to my apartment, took out my computer, and Googled things I could do in the social work field and I fell in love. That job I got, was in a grocery store. Not something I wanted. But it kept me afloat in graduate school (for social work) and secured me a job during the pandemic.
I say this because during those times. I was confused and unsure of why I couldn’t find a job, why I wasn’t getting into a speech pathology master’s program, why I was still working at a grocery store, and had a lot of whys. Apparently, I like to ask why. Why is that? Ha ha, sorry, I couldn’t resist.
But reflecting on all that showed me my answer to all my whys. God had a schedule. He had the itinerary and he knew what was to come. He also knew that if he gave me the itinerary or schedule, I would be so focused on making sure I got there on time that I might just miss something important.
Holocaust survivor Corrie Ten Boom shared in her book, The Hiding Place, an interaction that she had with her father.
Corrie’s father: “Corrie, when you and I go to Amsterdam-when do I give you your ticket?”
Corrie: “Why, just before we get on the train.”
Corrie’s father: “Exactly. And our wise Father in heaven knows when we’re going to need things, too. Don’t run out ahead of Him, Corrie. When the time comes that some of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you need-just in time.”
Just like Corrie Ten Boom, when I go to the train station to my next destination. I don’t have a train ticket. I don’t have any clue where I am going. But I trust God will arrive when the train comes and hand me my ticket. God won’t be late. He won’t be early, but he’ll be there and I trust him.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6
Elizabeth