Faith vs. Worry

The post I started Saturday morning…

“Faith says, ‘God can do it.’ Worry says, ‘God isn’t able to help me.'” – Joyce Meyer

I follow Joyce on Twitter. The above truth was one of her tweets this morning.

God is loudly and clearly speaking to me about my faith.

He is growing my faith in Him, shaping it, and making it stronger. I am a little overwhelmed with it all at the moment.

I saw His mighty hand move again, numerous times this week alone.

After putting out our Mission Tuesday #182 post, we saw God move and act on behalf of Mission of Hope. My faith remained strong in the situation at the Mission, as I see God work miracles every day there. I knew He would again. And He did!

In another situation in my personal life, I was praying for God to intervene and to make something happen that I wanted to have happen. He didn’t. I understand sometimes God’s answers to our prayers are “no,” or “not yet.” He is faithful. He knows what’s best for me and our family. I will wait for His will, and will wait on what He wants for me. (That’s not always the easiest for me, by the way.)

And this morning…

Bill and Zach are in Kansas City for a soccer tournament for Zach. Bill went to check in the team (he and I are managing the team this year), and some of the players’ paperwork was missing!! He called me to share this awful news. My heart sank, then it began to race. How could this be?? I thought we had everything we needed–and then some–in our binder that I worked so hard to put together that would streamline check in. I was wrong.

This call came at the worst time, as I was sitting sideline at one of our neighboring town’s annual parades with Ali and my brother Pat and his family. I immediately had to remove myself, down an alley, to call the registrar of our club and figure this out. In doing so, I missed my brother Steve and his family driving their two tractors in the parade. 🙁 My heart again sank. But as I stood there on the phone, almost in tears, I looked down the alley.

I was conscious of where I was, but it wasn’t until I looked down the alley and I realized I had stood in this very spot before, looking at a view I had seen many, many times.

Part of my childhood was spent in this small town, as my family and I lived there for a number of years…from my 1st Grade year to 5th Grade. This alley was behind the home I grew up in. Many times I walked up and down this alley, or rode by little bike. When I looked down that alley as I was on the phone with our club’s registrar, I had a peace come over me. Tears filled my eyes, partly because of the awful experience I was dealing with, and partly because of I felt God had taken me “full circle” in a way. It was an incredible experience, and I know my words here aren’t doing it justice.

(Finishing this post today…)

I ran home immediately after the parade finished. If we couldn’t find the documents we needed four of our teammates would not be able to play in this tournament. We would have some very disappointed and upset teammates and parents, not being able to participate in the tournament, especially after traveling all that way. Thanks to our registrar, I found all the documents I needed on my laptop when I arrived home. The registrar was in Kansas City at this tournament too, and connected with Bill at check-in.

I was able to print the forms off, fax them to Bill at the hotel, Bill found the Notary who notarizes all of our documents (he was also in Kansas City for this tournament to watch his daughter play), they got the documents notarized, and were able to check the team in successfully!! Praise God!! It was humbling to watch God put each person in the place where they needed to be. If one person wouldn’t have been out of place, the team wouldn’t have been registered correctly, and the whole situation could have turned out awfully.

My worry wanted to say, “There’s no way this will work out.” And I wanted to panic. But my faith took over and said, “God can do this. I just need to trust.” And He did. I am oh so thankful he did.

Zach’s team went on to place second in the tournament. They had a great time as a team, and Bill and Zach had some great times as dad and son. I’m still thanking God today for all He did, and all He continues to do to grow my faith.

Great is His faithfulness!!!