Our Perspective will never be God's; he's the author of this story

It was a few months ago, in February, that God's will for us, pertaining to our cars at that time, was to shine his light on an 18 year old by giving him one of our cars.  Back track a few years, it was a cold month back in 2008, maybe the beginning of 2009, that I was at the ReStore volunteering my time at the start of us partnering with Habitat for Humanity. I was in the break room when I received a call from close friends of ours with some news. We had been a one car family for a little over a year, and she was calling to tell me they were going to shine God's light on us and give us their car. They were ready to accept the burden of a car payment just so that we could have this car.  Wow, who am I, God? What a gift that was to our family, without a shadow of a doubt. We have never been a family to have extra money even an extra $50 to deal with any unexpected events or to be able to add a few-hundred dollar payment a month for another vehicle. We drove that car and praised God daily for what a gift it was. And when we had the opportunity given to us, to do the exact same thing for another of God's children, that was an even better feeling than receiving the car into our family.  We were free to make that choice and wanted to give that car away for no other reason than to show that young man God's love for him, no one made us do it.

Today, we find ourselves in a funny situation with a rental car (thanks to a deer mugging which totaled the one car we did have) and a countdown of six days before we give that rental back - which means either no car or find a car fast.  And this is where the title of this post comes from.

We are not writing the story of our family; God is writing it. This was reconfirmed for us in the message given at church this last weekend (click here to view the message). God is sovereign and no matter how much we think that we have 'freedom' to make choices and we make those choices, whether in-line with God's will or not, in the end, God's sovereignty WILL reign supreme.  Our freedom and God's sovereignty work together at the same time - and do not try to figure out how this works as Pastor Dolson so wisely explained, this is riddle.  It is not meant for us to figure out because we are not meant to write the story, only God is.  This mysterious relationship will FOREVER be just that--a mystery.

So while many onlookers could look at our decision to give away a car we weren't paying for that ran (even though it needed some work done which we could not pay for) and say, 'Why would anyone give away a running car, that didn't have payments on it, instead of keeping it for a safety if something were to happen to the good car?' They may even say, 'Why should we help them now? They're the misguided ones who gave away a perfectly fine car; if they hadn't, they wouldn't be in this situation right now.' But that perspective has 'I' and 'My story' and 'Control' written all over it.  Fleshing out that option:  it doesn't showcase God's glory, it's selfish, it strives to maintain control of our lives, it allows the thought that we know better than God what is best or right for our family and, in all reality, it leaves no promise that something wouldn't happen to both cars and the finality is that God is still in control. The option we chose - to give the car away - let's flesh that out: this young man got to see tangible evidence that God loves him through this gift (priceless), we are giving up control and saying to God, 'Absolutely, we trust you and we will live to give you glory, always, not just when it's convenient for us,' and it submits our will to God's. And so here we are...

We are not frantic. We put out the feelers for friends and family to keep an eye out for a car that might fit the budget that remains after all the insurance work is done and we are praying for God's will. We have no idea what that will be, we are not scrambling to come up with the money to purchase a new car, we do not know if he'll provide a used car in that budget, but we are letting God know we still, always, trust in his ways and his will and we know he will provide what we need, when we need it in whatever form it might be.  We know God is in COMPLETE control.  Which reminds me of a song I love to sing to when I am in the car by myself, the lyrics: God is control. We believe that his children will not be forsaken. God is in control. We will chose to remember and never be shaken. There is no power above or beside him. We know, oh, oh, oh, God is in control. 

And so we wait in great anticipation to watch God's sovereignty unfold this next chapter of his story.
And to us, this is what it means to live by Faith.