I can’t do this today. Or at least that’s what I thought when we started to walking to what I can only describe is the most magical ministry site yet. Think wooded forest with sunlight streaming through the trees and perfectly circle-shaped clearing to host a VBS, which is exactly what we were doing.
I couldn’t do this. I didn’t want to walk. I couldn’t breathe; my lungs decided that coughing was a better option. To whoever said that the world race is more a like a vacation, I’d personally would like to disagree. Strongly.
So I told God what I told you. I can’t do this today. Then I told him he had to do what I couldn’t. He had to provide the strength that I didn’t have to day.
Let’s just put this out there, there is a lot of scripture that tells us that God listens to our prayers. The bible tells story after story of God listening to his people and answering their prayers. Sarah’s desire for a child, the people of Israel in held captive in Egypt as slaves, the list goes on and on.
I’m positive that God has immediately answered my prayers before. I’m also positive that I don’t typically notice it. Its funny when you stop making excuses and running from something that’s always been there, how you can suddenly find what you’ve always been looking for.
So there I was coughing, trying to figure out how I going to make it through ministry, asking God to provide me with I just don’t have today, and then a little girl in a brown dress comes up and grabs my hand.
She pulls me along the path to the enchanted forest. We try to talk but we don’t speak the same language so both of us fall silent and we walk. I try keeping my hand loose so she knows she can let go but every time I do she tightens her grip. When I slow down, she pulls me forward. Willing me to keep go in a way that only a little girl holding your hand can.
It took me a couple hours after VBS to realize what God had done in that moment. I had asked for the strength to go on and there I was given someone to literally pull me forward, not letting go, choosing to stay there with me instead of running forward with her friends.
There’s something so completely profound about the way God answered that prayer. In that moment, God could have given me an inner strength to keep me going but he didn’t. He could have prompted our ministry host to let me ride in the car but he didn’t. He used a little girl in a brown dress to answer my prayer and show me the true meaning of his strength. His strength is a strength that is unfailing, unrelenting, always available, and just waiting for you to grab on.
