“You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand” -JOHN 13:7
This small little nugget from the bible that most of us just skim by and think “yep, he’s doing something alright..”
But have you ever slowed down to see all these little puzzle pieces that he is so intricately putting together for you?
A year ago my answer was probably the same as yours. NO.
It’s funny how some things happened so long ago can connect to what is happening now.
From the summer between my junior and senior year until about 3 years after I graduated from HS I lived by myself. Sure I hung out with people and had interactions with the people I worked with, but I spent ALOT of time alone. ?My “old lady friend” who became like a third grandma to me, Betty, was always concerned about me and all of the time I spent by myself. She was always telling me that I needed to not spend so much time alone.
In my mind it was fine. I was born and raised in good ole Oologah, OK. Everything and everyone I knew was there. I could find no practical reason to move. I was planted.
But God had a different plan.
A week before I was leaving to go to Falls Creek my house got infested with fleas. ?I don’t mean a small infestation, I mean BAD. ?I got a little PTSD from it and I even ran out crying one time because it was just too much for me. ?The place I was never leaving was no longer livable.
I moved in with my grandparents in Sperry and had to readjust to living with people, seeing people all the time and all the other things that you have to do when you live with someone.
I absolutely LOVE road-trips. Jump in the car and go. (If you frequent the bathroom I wouldn’t advise going on a road trip with me 😉 )
One of the last road trips I took was with my friend, Allison. We didn’t have a plan AT ALL. We got in the car and started driving south. We were possibly going to New Mexico, but who knew? Not us.
Within an hour we decided we were headed to the Grand Canyon.
Eyes on the road and we were off for a 15 hour overnight drive to Arizona.
It was the middle of the night, no rest stops in site and we needed to go.
SO, we pulled over at a little store that was closed opened the doors and squatted. (classy, i know.)
But another thing you must know is that I DO NOT SQUAT. A traumatic squatting experience when I was about 9 ruined all my chances of squatting.
From the time I was in middle school I always knew I was a little heavier than everyone my age, but I had decided that God made me exactly how he wanted me and nothing anyone could say or do would change that.
I didn’t step on a scale. But I also didn’t care what I ate, how much of it I ate, I didn’t exercise, and really I just did as little as possible. (That does not mean I was lazy. I was a very active person, just not in the health sense.)?
January of 2016, on a whim I decided I was going on a low-carb diet. I cut out all drinks except water, I ate meat, cheese, veggies and some fruits.
Within 6 months I had lost at least 60 lbs.
What do all of these stories have to do with God preparing me?
Moving in with my grandparents helped prepare me for this very large community that I live in on the race. ?I don’t know that I would have been able to do it if I had come from living alone for so long.
Re-learning how to squat prepared me for random “bathrooms” at random bus stops in the middle of somewhere in the world. (now i’ve been trying to teach Jessica how to squat properly).
And losing weight, well I think God just wanted me to have a healthier body. But there are also a lot of physical things that you do on the race. I think he was preparing me for that, too.
Think about it.?
What has God used from SO long ago to make you ready for what you’re dealing with today?? I guarantee that there is something that happened that you didn’t even notice.
He’s been preparing you for this and he’s still preparing you for something else. Don’t lose hope.
