Day 19 - Personal Story

The eyes of all wait on you; and you give them their food  in due season. Verse 15

So, today you may wonder why I am
on this verse again.  Well, with only 6 verses to go and 13 days left in our “31 Days of Praise” for this month of January 2012, I am in a pickle!  Or am I?

I had to chuckle at my lack of planning….but, then, perhaps this is how God planned it without any help from me at all!   It is worth stretching this out and resting on these verses that depict God’s benevolence and provision.   So, let me share some personal experience of my God of the 11th hour with you.  I’m sure you have some stories of your own.

The 1990’s were the decade of great joy, great sorrow, great struggle and great victory for me and my family.  There are too many stories to tell, but in a nut shell, these years brought me and my husband and my father a growing business, a growing family, a new home, my dad’s debilitating stroke, loss of said business, loss of said home, loss of my sister to cancer, our son born with heart defect, three heart surgeries in 16 months, one miscarriage, tax problems, fire sale, move in with mom and dad.

Now for the great stuff, again, too much to cover  here ,  but in a nutshell, Gracious God, 3 beautiful sons, incredibly strong marriage, physical needs met, super loving church family, awesome prayer sessions, miraculous provisions, reconciliation and peace, strength beyond my wildest imaginings, witness to those unsaved, giving and receiving mercy, compassion, 11th hour sale of business, bills paid, and move to Pittsburgh from LA on Christmas morning 1997.

There was lots of waiting on the Lord during those years.  We don’t know how things will turn out when your dad who is key man in the business is sidelined by a massive stroke at age 62.  With no speech and total paralysis on the right side, we limped along without him for 6 years.  Dad had been the master machinist, and though he had taught my husband well in the manufacture of aircraft and aerospace fittings and thumbscrews, the loss was irreversible.

Over time, the ripple effect took place and we knew we had no desire to press on.  I was in the office part time, with our first born in a porta-crib. Our office manager was a gem, a priceless diamond to us!  The rest of my time was spent helping mom with dad’s care, groceries, etc.  John and our two shop employees kept things  going.

  Things were further complicated and stressful with my sister’s cancer diagnosis and death.  Then our son, Ethan, was born and a new journey was set in motion.   Sometimes I would collapse crying out, “God, what did I do to deserve this?”

So typical, isn’t it?   We think that it is all about us…..why is MY life so hard, when do I GET a break?  How did all MY hard work result in this?   I want to RUN far away.

I write through tears now as I look back and remember the tender mercies of God.   His grace was sufficient, and His strength was perfection when I was weak.  His compassion calmed my fears, and I learned to totally submit to His desire to care for me and those I love.

Are you at the end of your rope today?  Do you feel like your back is against the wall and you have no solutions?  Stand still and see the salvation of God!  Cry out to Him and He will hear you!   We can never even imagine the surprising and creative ways God can move on behalf of His dear ones, those who call Him Savior and Lord.

I told you I could write a book, but for today let me wrap this up. It was summer 1997.  Business had slowed to a near standstill.  No more employees, very little work.   John and I were exhausted, ignorant of what to do, had no experts to consult, and no money to do that anyway.  

We decided to start a fire sale.  What if we sold off inventory like crazy?  We could hopefully raise enough capital to close up shop by year’s end with some shred of self –respect and honor our debts.

Email wasn’t a common tool yet, but we had a fax machine.  I designed a “Blow Out Inventory Sale” flyer and, starting with letter “A” in our rolodex of customers, I began to fax one at a time.  It was late August.    I had hardly reached the end of the “A”s when we got a phone call from a customer we had not done business with in years.   He wanted to know what was going on.  (I guess aerospace manufacturers didn’t usually do Blow Out Inventory Sales!)

Well, his suspicion was correct.  We had a business in trouble.  Long story short, this sweet and savvy businessman, more like a kindly cowboy/farmer from central California,  wanted to expand his operation, so he came to check out all our equipment, inventory and customer base. 

  One month later, we had drawn up the agreement, sold for the price we wanted, and literally had an old fashioned “hand shake” deal as we handed over the keys for him to start the move to his facility.  

Mom and Dad had the bulk of the money, we had our portion, and after enjoying Christmas Eve with them and my other 3 sisters, John and I boarded a flight to his hometown of Pittsburgh on Christmas Morning 1997 with 3 kids, nine suitcases and a Labrador retriever named Flash.

What do you really need to thrive in this life?  Here is my list: His mercies which are new every morning.  Confidence in His timing.  Trust in the everlasting love of a your Savior who is also your Lord. 

Living in His grip is the best place to be.   He gives us our food in due season, and though the seasons may be rough, He is faithful.

Lord, You are more than enough for me.  Amen.