Prayer: God can respond quickly!

So Sunday morning was a rough morning for Ali and I. We had had an incredibly busy weekend, many friends coming in from out of town and our daughter, Natalie (YES Josh! I'm a dad now! April 14 was one of the proudest days of my life) was awfully fussy that morning.

I went out to move the car seat from my truck into Ali's car. Lo and behold, passenger seat had papers and stuff ALL over it from the glove compartment. There was also a hammer in there that didn't belong to us. We had our cars broken in March of '09 and quite a few things were stolen (couple of GPSs, my work laptop and some other stuff). Of course, I was pretty upset, I asked Ali to come out and look at what had happened. She looked around to see if anything were missing. Our stroller was still inside, books and a few other things were still there, my limited edition Gameboy was still there. It had me confused until.... Ali said the cashier check for daycare was missing. A cashier's check for $910. NINE-HUNDRED TEN DOLLARS. I was fuming mad.

On the way, I was thinking why do people do this? I was really upset and disgusted. I also was planning on what to do. We had a guest speaker at church that morning - Kevin Clark for our deaf worship. I was planning on dropping Ali and Natalie off at church then going back and seeing if I could put a stop to that check -- call the bank or something. I pulled up to the parking lot and told Ali what I was planning on doing. She told me that I needed to go to worship and be there for others. I was like, "NINE-HUNDRED TEN DOLLARS!!!" You all know you would have done the same! :) NINE HUNDRED TEN DOLLARS!!!! A thought suddenly popped in my head. I have to explain this thought with some background info.

In 2001, I went to SBCD (Southern Baptist Conference for the Deaf) in West Palm Beach, Florida with Ali's church - Parkwood Baptist. While at SBCD, I met this CUTE girl -- her name was Sonja. Being the young boy I was, of course, I was all woohoo for her. She wasn't a Christian. I talked with Beryl Corey (from Tennessee) about this and she encouraged me to share Christ with her. I became determined to lead her to Christ because it wasn't cool for Christians and non-Christians to date (apparently, oftentimes, I didn't agree with that of course -- I was only 17 years old! lol). During the week, I got to know her quite a bit, she shared with me some of the things that had happened in her life -- rough things. It became very apparent to me that Christ, of course, was the best option for her. On the final night of worship, she hadn't made a decision. We all gathered in church and got ready for worship but Sonja wasn't anywhere to be found. I asked everyone where she was. I checked the cafeteria, the gym and the youth worship center. I still couldn't find her. I truly became afraid and worried for her -- Beryl came up to me and I told her what was going on. She said this and I remember this as if it happened yesterday.

"You have two choices. You can choose to trust God and receive your spiritual feeding for tonight or you can go and look for her." COME ON BERYL!!!! That's not fair. We all know what the "right" answer is supposed to be. UGH. So.... I... DID NOT WANT TO STAY.... but I did. I prayed and asked God to allow His will to happen. He knew what I was looking for to happen. I told Him I was going to choose to stay. As soon as I said "amen," Sonja walked into the church. WHAT??? Ok God, you win.... thank you. Sonja received Christ that night.

So... in the parking lot while I'm fuming over the NINE HUNDRED TEN DOLLAR CASHIER CHECK...... a thought pops in my head. "You have two choices. You can choose to trust God and receive your spiritual feeding or you can go and figure out the whole check stuff." COME ON GOD!!!!!! THAT'S NOT FAIR!!! NINE HUNDRED TEN DOLLARS!!!!! UGH!! I'm like, "Ok, ok, I'll stay. You're right. I need to trust You. You'll take care of my business....... I hope.... its NINE HUNDRED TEN DOLLARS!!!!" As soon as I said "amen," Ali walks up to the passenger side of the car, looks at me through the window and says, "hey, check under the passenger seat, make sure it's not there."

YEAH!!!! YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED. I looked under the passenger seat and, lo behold. A cashier's check written to our daughter's daycare for NINE HUNDRED TEN DOLLARS!!!

Ok God. You win. Again.

Thank You God for this simple lesson, a reminder that obedience is expected all the time and is surely rewarded. Sometimes the rewards come later. Sometimes, its instantaneously.

But still.... did I need to have that kind of heart attack?? :)