Praise Him In This Storm

There’s going to be people that are going to take this post the wrong way, and that’s okay. You’re not me. You’re looking at a snapshot and not the full story of life, and we all have different worldviews and values in which we bring to table to sift through some of these ideas. And that’s cool. But it doesn’t change the truth.

God. Is. So. Good.

I don’t think there has been a day that has gone by in the last several months that my husband and I haven’t uttered/texted some variation of that truth to one another, and often to others in our various conversations as well. We continue to be blown away daily in how God took over our plans and blew them out of the water.

Spoiler alert: We didn’t plan to move back to Lake Havasu as fast as we did. We were several months into the process of what we felt was going to take until fall 2020 for us to comfortably transition. What was anticipated to take roughly 12 months, God said, “Take that–how about 12 weeks? I’ve got plans.” Trust and Obey.

We weren’t ready, but God was. Everything fell into place. It was a tidal wave, and completely overwhelming in every possible way you could imagine, but every detail worked out. To perfection. Not a chance could we have orchestrated winding up what we had dedicated ever waking breath to–and many dreams and nightmares too–for so many years and handing off our ministry, find our absolute dream home (seriously, short of building it from scratch, we couldn’t have dreamed it any better–there’s just a few minor upgrades we’ll make when we get to that point) in the community that we love with our whole hearts, have my husband begin thriving in a new career that he’s loving, and launch the business of my dreams. Just follow the steps He laid out. Trust and Obey.

Life’s pretty grand, right? All our needs are met, we can breathe easy. God is good.

Enter the world turning upside down. Needless to say, I don’t have to go into detail how COVID-19 has brought the planet to a screeching halt.

But. I can tell you, I still cry daily in sheer awe at God’s provision. For He is good.

Let’s back up the train a little bit…remember those plans we had? That God had better?

Nothing happens in God’s plans for us (*in this case, my husband and I) by coincidence. (Trigger warning, this is the part where some of you are going to start taking things the wrong way, so the easily offended can stop reading)

With the current state of the world, while we would have stepped up to the plate and done what was expected of us, we would have struggled in a lot of different ways. I’m not going to lie, and I briefly touched on it in a social media post yesterday–living with PTSD is making it very difficult to manage the everyday symptoms of anxiety and depression that come along with it and not letting it escalate into extremely unnecessary fear or panic. I am blessed to be able to distance myself now from the chaos of the world, still conduct business to help support my family, and also choose how much of the pandemonium I’m going to allow into my life (sadly, more than I like to, but being a responsible business owner and allied health provider, information and knowledge is power). I don’t have to for one second feel guilty for taking care of myself first.

As for my husband, he is thriving in a new career that he is having a blast with! He’s getting to meet new people, see new places, and minister to people in unique places that often are overlooked or don’t get to hear about the love of Jesus. He is affirmed in his work and worth, and his work has meaning and value–and that affirmation is something that was lacking from so many key places for too many years. It’s something that as his spouse I can tell him until I’m blue in the face, but that doesn’t always make the impact sometimes. My heart has always hurt for that, and I just burst with pride and excitement when I hear from him each day now and what he’s up to. Especially during this time, being an “essential worker” and in extremely high demand, he’s serving in ways that I’m sure he never imagined.

Now, don’t mistake my words–life isn’t all sunshine and roses. Life is real. Life is messy. Life is life. I wish a lot of things to still be different. I wish things like some of the quarantine recommendations and sheltering orders were different so I could spend time with particular family members, but that’s not feasible or prudent with this virus right now. Life is hard. Life takes work.

But I do know these things: this too shall pass. All our needs are met. God is so good.

So, all that remains, is just to continue to trust and obey. And praise. Always praise. Always.