What are some of the things that cause you to be anxious, stress you out, create worrisome thoughts, tension or apprehension? Presently, I’m in Southeast Asia doing a fair amount of traveling with Saving Moses. One of the countries I visited had protests and demonstrations (some of them violent) because the citizens of this country are highly dissatisfied with their government. On the last night in this country, we heard explosions outside our hotel window, and these were concerning, to put it mildly.
Our flight out of the country was supposed to be early the next morning, but when we arrived at the airport, we discovered that our flight didn’t leave until at least twelve hours later. This was problematic because we had a full day of work scheduled for our next country. I found a flight that could get us to our next country but there were challenges with getting on that flight. Furthermore, the country we were flying to was forecast to have a really big cyclone, which was threatening to shut down the airport at our destination.
All of these things were making me really stressed out and there was nothing I could do. I couldn’t change the weather. I couldn’t force my way on the plane and I couldn’t force the flight manager to book seats on his plane. And most certainly, I didn’t want to stay in a country where there was so much instability. Given my inability to change my circumstances, while I waited, trying to be friendly, polite and helpful, I quietly prayed.
After some time and the flight manager madly typing away on his computer, he landed us seats on his plane and told me that the airport at our destination would absolutely be closed in the afternoon. This was probably the last flight of the day to that city, soon to be under an intense cyclone landfall.
When all the dust settled, we were able to leave the country that was experiencing protests and instability. We were able to land in our destination city, just hours before the cyclone arrival and we safely settled into the hotel with a huge sigh of relief. I think I was so stressed out from all of the uncertainty that it took me several hours to finally exhale and breathe easy, letting the adrenaline clear out of my bloodstream.
As I began to exhale, I thanked God more than a few times for taking care of all the travel gyrations. I thanked God for keeping us safe and for helping us to comfortably settle into our hotel before the cyclone arrival with massive rainfall and heavy winds.
Going through this experience reminded me that God is more than capable to handle shocks, uncertainties, interruptions, plans gone awry, cranky airport people, natural disasters and so much more. Of course we do our best to plan and be strategic, but let’s remember that God is still ultimately in control, full stop.
I’m reminded of Proverbs 16:9 which says, “The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.”
May we continually trust and rest in God’s capable hands and wisdom!
