The Day
By Mike Rule

It started out like any other day. I had office work to do in the morning, then I needed to go and put new brakes on my dad's van in the afternoon. The morning went fairly smooth. The ministry office work is a joy to do and each day offers new challenges and new opportunities. I planned to be out of the office by 11:30 and be on my way to Dad's house by 12:00 or 12:30.

We had some hang ups before we could get out of the house, and then just as we were leaving some guys stopped by to drop off my shotgun. I had sent it to be sighted-in after completely missing four deer during deer season. They stayed and talked quite a while. It was getting close to 12:45 before they left. Our plan was to stop at the local Subway and pick up a sandwich to eat on the way to Dad's (he lives about 65 miles away). I think that I had the slowest counter girl in the west. It took her forever to take our order and even longer to make our sandwiches. People were lined up to the door waiting, and I could not figure out why one of the other girls in the back of the restaurant did not come out to help. I was blowing fuses by now. It was 1:00 before we finally got on the road. Becky was getting agitated because I was so agitated. The whole family was stirred up and I have to admit I did drive slightly aggressively.

I was particularly wanting to rush and be there at a good time because of other plans we had for the evening. I did not want the brake job to interfere with the plans for the night. Experience has taught me that a simple job can often be the worst and take four times longer than you would expect. Everything went smoothly and I finished in plenty of time for the evening's activities.

The next day as I was recounting all this to my prayer buddy Dave, I was puzzling out loud why God did not grab me by the shoulders as He usually does when I get that stirred up. At that precise moment God began to speak: "I let you go all the way this time for a reason, Mike. I wanted you to see what you are wanting to do with the ministry. You are wanting to rush around and get everything done to be ready for the coming events. If you had just relaxed and let Me do things in My time yesterday and if you had seen me in it all, you still would have finished on time. You and everyone around you would not have been so stirred up. I wanted you to experience first hand what it is like to work in your strength rather than yielding to Me in all things."

I praise God that even when it seems He is not keeping me, He is. Even when things don't make sense, they ultimately do. Everything preaches Jesus to us. Jesus wants us to relax and enjoy the trip. He has it well in hand! Praise God for that!