My Glorious!

If you aren't familiar with the song My Glorious by Delirious (or Chris Tomlin), the chorus reads:

God is bigger than the air I breathe, this world I'll leave.
God will save the day, and all will say, "My Glorious!"

How true those words are, and they hit me at 4 a.m. this morning.

If you've been following my regular blog, my last post here, or my Facebook page, you'll see we're moving back to civilization. It's been an incredible journey for me spiritually - from Thanksgiving til now, and it's not over yet. I went from miserable depression and loneliness, to the happiest I've been in a couple of years. And it's all because God stepped in, again.

Here's a quick overview to recap:
1. Thanksgiving Day I woke up feeling lonely, depressed about the loss of so many friends and having no family of my own, and no church family close enough to spend time with on a regular basis.
2. I asked God if He would be willing to step in and change things for us and I would agree to follow and trust, wherever those changes led.
3. God put a plan in motion that resulted in my husband's willingness to change careers, go back to school for a month (while working 3rd shift on his days off, 200 miles away, riding a motorcycle in 30 degree weather/rain/snow showers to save money), and a full scholarship/grant to pay for trucking school. This goes WAY against his normal comfort zone.
4. Of all the company's Tim was looking at to work for, God brought Roehl out of the woodwork for us. I prayed for him to shut down and block all the wrong opportunities and make HIS choice clear, and make that path wide open so we couldn't miss it.
5. Roehl turned out to offer the best pay, best home time, best family-friendly attitude, and shortest training schedule so Tim could start making money as a solo driver sooner.
6. God then turned these events into an opportunity to move back to the city where I now believe (and did 2 years ago as well), that we were never supposed to leave. I believe He brought us to Mesa for a purpose and leaving was Tim's plan, not God's.
7. A friend then blessed us with her and her husband's resources totally out of the blue by offering us an unbelievable deal on renting a home from them. We're getting a 1672 sf home, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, wonderful yard, at the end of a cul-de-sac, just a few blocks from everything we need, for about 1/3 less than they could easily have rented it out for. Then they offered to totally remodel and renovate - new kitchen, new master bath, yard work, new tile, new paint throughout, the works. I pray God blesses everything they touch in a mighty way.

Then at 4 a.m. I realized just how personal this is getting, and how truly blessed we are with God handling our provision in the transition. Tim & I were talking today and trying to figure out how in the world we ended up with a small paycheck of about $150 when he shouldn't have actually received anything for the week after orientation. The company, through a series of "ball dropping" managed to turn his 1 day off before on-the-job training into 5 1/2 days of sitting, waiting, and not getting paid. Anyway, when we looked at the paystub online, we saw the company had put some reimbursements in his automatic deposit paycheck instead of on the usual reimbursement card like they had been doing. We couldn't figure out why those things were paid completely different than anything we'd seen before. Then at 4 a.m. it hit me! God once again was providing.

You see, we had our van renewal due the day after payday and needed about $100 for that, and we owed now $50 for tithing, since we didn't have the gas money to make it into town for church last week (due to some necessary trips in earlier in the week). Had the company not made what looks like a mistake, we wouldn't have had the money we needed to renew the one vehicle we drive everywhere and need to keep on the road legally. Any driving/auto related problems really can hurt Tim now that he's a commercial driver - driving w/o insurance, a ticket for going through red lights, accidents, they all hurt his career now. So I believe God stepped in, the company did something out of the ordinary, at just the right time, and we were able to pay the one bill that was due immediately and was very important.

I woke up out of a sound sleep and my very first thought was, "Oh! God did that! THAT'S why the company did something so strange!" Where else would that come from since I was sound asleep just moments before?

God will save the day, and I will say, "My Glorious!"

And it just keeps getting better!

Although I know God CAN do everything, I still don't think to "bother Him" with dumb little incidental things. I figure He's busy enough with all the really important stuff of the universe, so why bring up stuff that won't matter 5 years from now? But you know what? God comes through anyway, on stuff I wouldn't dream of or sometimes wouldn't DARE to ask for! Here's an example:

My kids have a running joke about my parking spaces at Wal-Mart. They're the busiest parking lot in any town we go to, and finding a space within a mile of the store can be a challenge. I would never ask God for a close parking space at Wal-Mart, it's an insignificant thing. Yet, no matter what day of the week or what time of day we go, I always manage to find a parking space in the first 3 spaces in one of the closest 2 or 3 rows near the door. I don't ask, it just happens. Even if there's no space available, as I'm approaching those spaces fully intending to drive by, one of the front 3 cars will back out and leave! It always amazes my kids, but I'm careful never to take credit for any of it.

So what did God do this time that was so incredible? Well, it's about our new house that we'll be renting in a few weeks. The agreement with my friend was that we would move into her rental at a more than fair price (almost cut in half what it could've been), and we would take it "as is" without expecting them to do anything to it except fix anything that was found to be actually broken.

Here's a quick bullet point of how it went:
- The previous owner is from the islands, that explains the flourescent blue on the walls, ceilings, and more - and the lime green walls too!
- The master bath is ugly, is that black mold or just dirt? Maybe I can bleach it.
- The rugs were ripped out and there's glue "squiggles" on the cement floors, but I love cement floors, it'll keep the house cooler in summer, so it's okay, we can sand the squiggles off.
- The boys room looks like a carnival tent! It's so dark red & dark blue that it looks like a black room in the middle of a sunny day. What's with the yellow stars painted on the floor? It looks like a baby nursery but it's an older teen guy room?

(These were just fleeting thoughts, but I agreed to "as is", so I didn't ask for anything except maybe a professional cleaning of the master bath. I was just so thankful to have found a place we could afford, love the neighborhood, and it's the last house on a cul-de-sac! I'll take it, and we'll worry about painting later!) I left feeling happy, excited about the move, and so thankful for such a wonderful friend to allow us such a great deal.

So I wasn't asking for anything. "As is" means without complaining, right? I've been telling everyone how good God is to take care of us so well by finding us this house so unexpectedly. I won't bother Him with asking for more, or improvements. I'll be content with what He's provided.

Then God proved His word to be true once again - He knows how to give good gifts and knows our needs before we even ask. Here's what God did for us:

- I get a call from my friend who owns the house, she says they're totally remodeling the master bath before we move in. As for paint, we'll think about the "carnival" room.

- A week later I find out they're redoing the whole house before we move in! New flooring throughout, new tile, new paint in all the rooms, a whole new kitchen with a new island! Updates in the 2nd bathroom, the works! I never could've imagined we'd receive such a wonderful surprise, that our new home would be SO PERFECT! God's blessings are so far beyond anything I could even dream of or hope for!

He is such a wonderful, loving Father. And we recognize it's only by His hand that all this has been possible, we appreciate it, and humbly give ourselves to Him to use any way He sees fit - to have us serve those He brings to our attention, for His glory. It's not confining to follow Christ - It's total freedom and joy!