Trusting God Proverbs 3:5-6

Praying over the city at Groundswell Midway.

September 24, 2018· Saint Paul ·

With the later sunrise, I decided to dive into work before my ride. My life and my focus works so much better when I let God in first. I am making up for lost time by making Him a priority right now. <3

This picture was my view for today’s prayers. Fairly ordinary. Nothing too exciting here, and that is how my story begins—with the ordinary that God can illuminate into something wonderful.

I routinely listen to the New York Times podcast called THE DAILY. While traveling home from Duluth after a business meeting about a week ago, I was listening to the two-part series, LOST IN THE STORM. On the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Harvey hitting Houston, they were examining the emergency response system. It featured an incredibly moving story of a man named Wayne Dailey. I don’t want to give the story away—instead I encourage you to listen to it: Part One; Part Two.

Wayne faced an incredibly terrifying experience and he did so with grace. He’s recorded in this piece, during the actual events, going live on Facebook and making 911 calls. As his life is literally being torn apart and he is facing one of the most harrowing experiences, he calmly talks to dispatchers and other possible rescue personnel—some NOT responding at the necessary level for the crisis Wayne and his family faced, yet Wayne handled each with composure and grace.

This fascinated me. This is NOT how I would have reacted in this situation. Chances are, if this had been me, they could have NEVER used the audio tapes. I would have been freaking. I would have been livid. I’m unsure what I would have said, but my tape might have had a lot of BLEEPS. Those of you that know me realize I don’t really swear, but in this sort of situation, good gravy, I quite literally might have lost it.

Not the case with Wayne. Not the case at all. Each call, calm and collected. This was my other thought, had Wayne gotten angry, behaved as I might have, would it change the outcome at all? Possibly all that anger only would have made it worse and people respond less likely to want to assist.

I’m not normally like this, but he impressed me so much that I felt compelled to find Wayne. I did a search on FB and found who I thought was the right man. In fact, I couldn’t even send him a friend request—his page only allowed me to select to FOLLOW him, so I thought I had the right guy. A few days later, Wayne friended me.

Then I felt further compelled to message him. This is the deal, I’m now reaching stalker range. Many times, I unfriend people who “message” me right away, but I truly felt like I needed to tell Wayne how I’d been praying for his family and how much he impressed me. Thankfully he didn’t block this stalker and we chat on occasion. I’ve been blessed, incredibly blessed, by my contact with Wayne and grateful to better know him and his family.

This is the BIG idea in this, God took an ordinary event and made it a blessing. Where some might have been struck with all the things we should do better to help people in crisis, and we should, God used this one to move my heart about the way I handle the difficulties in life. Ultimately, Wayne showed incredible FAITH. He, in the face of the worse the world had to offer, calmly did what he could trusting that ultimately God had control of this, and with God at the helm, Wayne knew he could persevere. I need that sort of faith.

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV) Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

Dearest Heavenly Father, while anger, at times, can be just and indicates a wrong that should be righted, anger issues really indicates a lack of faith in You and Your plans and our desire to control. I truly must submit to You. In all things, You are there to help and to guide us. Lord please help us to remove all levels of unjust anger so that we may be, in all things and in all circumstances, the model of Your perfect Grace.

Love you all dearly. Truly. Please bring any prayer requests to me. I love this Spiritual connect to you.