WHEN GOD WANTS SOMETHING DONE

During his sermon yesterday, Bruxy Cavey commented on how the shepherds were just doing their thing and tending their sheep when God announced to them the birth of Jesus. The lesson we can take from this is that we can trust that if God has something to say to us, He'll tell us. We don't need to make ourselves feel something or be something in order to "hear" from God.

This was totally my experience with this whole coming home thing. I was just doing the task at hand when He made it clear that He wanted me to come home. Not only did He give me clearance from HR on both sides of the ocean and support from family and friends, He arranged for someone to take over my room when I left. The one remaining detail was my flight home. It was a most edge-of-your-seat process and I don't want to forget it, so I'm going to include it here.

Something I've learned from past experiences is that when God wants something to happen, He'll pull out all the stops to make it happen. I got the green light to change my flight on a Monday. That day, I called the airline twice. Both times, they said the economy seats were all sold out until Feb 21, 2008(!). I requested to be put on their waiting list for December flights.

On Tuesday, I called the airline again. Same answer. The agent suggested I could look into upgrading to Business class. She sent in a request to see how much that ticket upgrade would cost.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the ocean, my travel agent was trying to pull some strings internally for me. She advised me to ask about upgrading to a higher economy class ticket.

Wednesday, word came back: upgrading to business class would cost $3,300 CAD. (Yeah, right!) No thanks, I said.

On Thursday, the agent explained that there was a possibility to get a more expensive economy class ticket. This was what I was looking for! I felt like this was the breakthrough I'd been waiting for. There were only 4 seats available for Dec 13th. Nothing else. I could buy a one-way ticket for $1000+ CAD, she said. How much would it cost to upgrade my ticket? She didn't know so she put in a request to find out.

Friday (how long was this going to drag on, I wondered), the agent said nothing had changed. After a few agonizing minutes of waiting, she said the answer had come back: $130 CAD and there were only 2 seats left! There it was!!! God pulled through yet again!

Another interesting detail is this: In one of my middle-of-the-night prayers of desperation, I had asked the Lord to give me two weeks notice before I had to leave the country. December 13 was exactly two weeks from when the breakthrough phone call happened. Coincidence? I think not.