Jim's Place

Thank God (He's in Charge)

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted, but at least part of my excuse is that I was in El Paso all last week without access to the internet. Anyway, excuses aside, a lot has happened in that time and the good news is that I'm not in charge, but God is!

You see I made my flight reservations for El Paso when I thought I needed to go out there to find a house. In the meantime, we went ahead and bought a house there with the help of the internet and a realtor there. However, since I bought the cheapest ticket, it was non-refundable so I had to go out there anyway. That, in itself, wasn't bad since I really wanted to see how construction was going on the house and see the colors we had picked out (for stucco, tile, cabinets, walls, carpet, roof, etc). Of course, I didn't need 4 full days just to do that. I called Delta to see if there was any chance of shortening the trip (without additional expense) and was told that the only possibility might be an earlier flight back on the same day I was scheduled to return. But, even that couldn't be arranged until the day I was supposed to return. I was due back in Tallahassee about 7:00 pm this past Friday and since our house here was being put on the market on Saturday, I really wanted to get back to help Lucy get the last few things done that needed to be done to get the house ready. There was an earlier flight that day that would have gotten me home about 3:30 pm which would have given me time to mow the lawn and other things.

I didn't think it made a lot of since that the airline would make me wait until that day to try and change the flight. So, between rounds of golf (I did get to play 3 rounds in 3 days in El Paso) I prayed that I would be able to get the earlier flight on Friday. Since the earlier flight departed El Paso at 7:00 am, I set my alarm for 2:00 am that morning to call the airline and try and move my flight up. As it turns out, that early flight went through Houston (my original flight went through Atlanta) and the Houston airport was closed that morning due to something called Hurricane Rita. The bottom line is that if the airline would have let me change my flight earlier in the week like I thought they should have, I wouldn't have gotten home at all on Friday. I'm sure God is in charge and not me.

That might seem like a little thing, but I can look back through my life and see so many times when things didn't go as I wanted or planned, but the end results were always so much better. For you Garth Brooks fans, you will be familiar with the following lyrics from his song, "Unanswered Prayers."

Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers
Remember when you're talkin' to the man upstairs
That just because he doesn't answer doesn't mean he don't care
Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers

Of course, it isn't that "he doesn't answer", the reality is that He answers all our prayers, but as Pastor John has often reminded us--sometimes the answer is "yes", sometimes it is "no" and other times it is "wait."

Anyway, the construction on our new house is coming along well and is scheduled to be complete on November 8th. And, our house here in Tallahassee did go on the market yesterday and as of this afternoon we have a signed contract on it--one day on the market (thanks KS).

As much as Lucy and I hate to leave Tallahassee and especially our church family, it is amazing to see how everything is simply falling into place. We truly believe that (for whatever reason) God wants us back in El Paso and anxiously await to see what He has in store for us there. Well, that's about it for now--hopefully, there won't be such a long time before my next post.

posted by Jim @ 9:14 PM