Leaving Vientiane in two months time. It still hasn’t sunk in yet. Six years living in a foreign country can do that to you I guess.
Recap on things that happened this week:
1) Engaged and made friends with an Atheist.
2) Said farewell to a long time Muslim friend.
3) Prayed to God for a surprise and got exactly that.
This post is obviously about the latter, so I’ll get straight to the point.
I was feeling really good about myself because of no. 1. I was praising God and just being in an attitude of worship for what He has done.
Because of that, I was feeling invincible. After all, if God is with me, what can stand against me right?
I prayed, I mean earnestly prayed to God:
“Lord, I’m yours! You are so wonderful and great, I know what You decide for me is good. Please God, surprise me today! Make something happen that would be wonderful and good for me?”
Not too long after, I got my surprise.
It came in the form of my pastor calling me at my office to berate me.
Unexpected? Yes. Surprised? Definitely. Wonderful and good? Not so sure.
I was stunned at what my pastor told me. I literally wasn’t expecting it from him.
I was hurt. I was angry. I was mad.
What was it about? Doesn’t matter.
What matters is that an offense was made, and something needed to be done about it.
I spent the entire evening trying to rationalize what had just happened.
I tried keeping it to myself, but I ended up sharing it to my wife.
Well, “spilling the beans” was probably more like it.
I ranted. I fumed. I cussed. I swore.
Yes, it was that bad.
I was so angry, I couldn’t even read the Bible to look for inspiration. I knew I was in trouble then.
So I did the only thing I could do: I prayed. Again.
“God, I was not expecting this. This is a bit too much for me right now. I’m so angry, I can’t think. I don’t know what to do. I’m sure there’s a lesson you want me to learn here. But right now, it’s not clear to me what you want me to do in response to this. Please Lord, just take away the anger and pain so that I can think straight. I know that I can work this out. Just give me a fighting chance. You’ll see, I’ll solve this for You. You are my God. I’ll do anything for you.”
I fell asleep still in fits of anger.
But I woke up the following day feeling absolutely wonderful. I looked outside the window and the sun was shining brightly. Always a good sign for me.
I was surprised that after last night, I felt no anger at all. It was just a clear refreshing feeling.
I’m alright. I can get over it now.
But then my pastor texted me. Sent me a verse that he said the Holy Spirit led him to, and wanted to share with me.
I was expecting a resurgence of the anger, of the rage. But I surprised even myself. I texted back and jokingly told him that I had misread the numbers on his verses and actually read something else.
I asked to meet with him. Not really sure why, but that was the feeling that I had that morning. I wanted to meet with him to talk about what had happened.
And that’s exactly what we did.
We met. We talked. We shared. We explained. We agreed. We prayed.
And that was that.
I learned three things from the experience:
1) If you don’t say something, you are NOT communicating.
2) If you say something, but offend the other person, you are still NOT communicating.
3) And finally, as the title of this post says, Be careful what you pray for.
As so many of my fellow believers have found out countless times before me, God just might give you what you asked for.
God bless you everyone!
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