God's sense of humor

God sure does have a sense of humor.  You never know what lengths He's going to go to to get you right where He wants you.  This morning I took David to school at 7:30 with the plan to pick him up at 9:30 to take him on our tour of one of the middle schools.  I had two ideas as to how to spend the following two hours.  I've been listening to our series on James on CD in my car, so I could just find a place to sit in my car and listen.  I also had a ton of papers that needed to be graded, so I considered finding a coffee shop to sit and grade them.

Now let's back up a little.  I started out the morning feeling incredibly discouraged and defeated, letting my tears flow freely during my quiet time as I prayed.  This waiting is really beating me up mentally, and I guess emotionally, too.  (More mentally than anything).  So I pull up to the coffee shop as I heard the most tender song on the radio talking about how sometimes our healing comes through tears.  Once again, the tears just readily flowed.  I sat there for several minutes and just cried.  I decided I didn't feel like sitting in a car for two hours, so I went in, got a cup of coffee, spread my papers all over one of the tables, and proceeded to grade them.  I kept checking my phone to make sure I wasn't late, but time was passing very slowly, so I was getting a lot accomplished!  I couldn't believe how much I'd gotten done when it was still only about 8:15.

I graded one set of papers after another, and then suddenly I looked at my phone and saw that it was already 9:31!  I was supposed to pick up David at 9:30, which meant I was late!  How did that happen?  I was positive that only about ten minutes had passed since I last checked my phone.  I scrambled to quickly get all my papers collected and shoved them into my bag.  Then I nearly ran out the door to the car.  I get to the car, start it, and see that the clock still says 8:35.  I looked at my phone, but that clock still registered as 9:35.  Which was right?  Then the radio stated that it was currently 8:35.  Somehow my phone had just suddenly jumped an hour.

Well, I felt a little silly going back inside just to spread my papers all over the table again, so I decided to just stay in the car to finish grading them.  While there, I turned on the audio session for James and just listened.  Funny, just like every session from our Esther study spoke directly to me over precisely the area I was struggling with, this one did, too.  It was all about dealing with mental anguish,  believing that God will not leave us there and will redeem us when the time is His time.  There is a purpose for the wait, even for the anguish.  Just like He did last time around, He will turn this very anguish into a source of joy.

It was just what I needed to hear.  God saw my tears and heard my cries, and He answered me.  He just had to change the time on my phone in order to get me to listen!  I had to chuckle over that one. :)

I picked David up on time, got to the middle school, and noticed that my phone was back on the right time. :)  We had a great morning  touring the school and then having a lunch date together.  What a great school with such happy kids, happy teachers, and happy parents--and a ton to offer!  David even saw one of his buddies that he met through a good friend, so that was a bonus.  His teacher's been very helpful in getting David to appreciate the opportunity, too.  Now to make a final decision before the paper is due next week.