Sometimes I think of God like a genie. Not in a Barbara Eden, I Dream of Jeannie kind of way, but in a sneaky, too clever for your own good kind of way. You know those genies, the ones who take your wish and twist your words so that what comes from it is not what you intended, but it’s technically what you wished for? But instead of using wishes, God uses our prayers.
Take praying for patience. I’ve been warned against this on multiple occasions, but being an impatient person, I prayed for it anyway. Instead of magically gaining a bundle of patience, I gained a bundle of the most frustrating, aggravating campers ever. It was like a cruel joke. But after that summer (which I absolutely loved!) I have a crazy amount of patience. God gave me what I asked for, but not in the way I had hoped. Just like a sneaky little genie.
Well, I did it again. This time with worry. But instead of praying for less worry, I just told God I wasn’t going to worry anymore. And I told Him via blog (The Birds and the Bees blog). Rookie mistake. So here I am telling the world that I’m done worrying and two days later I find myself on a bus to a train station full of worry. We left at noon for a two hour ride where we would proceed to take a 30ish minute taxi ride to catch our 5pm train. We figured we’d have an extra hour to eat before going inside the train station at 4pm. It sounded perfect.
All was well, until about an hour out when we stopped. Literally, a dead stop for an hour and a half. We sat and watched countless cars turn around and others sneak past us making imaginary lanes. All the while I was worried about missing our train to Beijing.
Normally on travel days, I expect delays, missed transportation, confusion, etc. I understand that things happen and it just adds to the adventure. Never any worries from me. But this travel day is different. Missing this train would mean one less day in Beijing. One less day to see the Great Wall, Tien an men Square, the Summer Palace, and all the shopping markets. It’s not very often that we have time to be actual tourists and I don’t think I could see all of Beijing in a day and a half. Needless to say, catching this train was very important to me.
So as I sat in my stationary bus watching the time pass by, I worried. A lot. So I prayed. But we still didn’t move…So (logically) I started doing math problems to keep myself distracted. It helped, but I was still worried about missing our train.
Eventually the traffic broke and we made our way (very quickly) to the bus station. And after a crazy taxi ride, rushing through the train station and dragging my giant pack down a flight of stairs (that’s what airporters are for…) we made it to our train with 8 minutes to spare!
As I sat down on my bed, thanking God that we made it, I just started to laugh. He knew the entire time that we would make it, He just wanted to show me that I have no need to worry.
I’m pretty sure I failed His test, but I’m also sure there are many more to come. As for now, I’m going to sleep peacefully on the train that God didn’t let me miss.
