Iowa

God's timing is perfect. He is never late. But most importantly, He is never early. Did you get that? He is never early. Have you ever been waiting patiently for something and it just never seems to come? I was to leave on a 7:10am flight to Sioux Center, Iowa on Friday morning. I didn't make it.

At 11pm Thursday night I got sick. Violently sick. The stomach-virus, food poisoning sick that you can't stay in bed for because you are running to the bathroom kind of sick. All night this went on...I didn't sleep, I couldn't, because I was in the bathroom. I have not been this sick in a very long time. So when 7:10am came and I lay in my bed feeling like I would die with pain, there was an event coordinator in Iowa getting ready to come to the airport to pick me up. Bev, I suppose, woke up in great anticipation of the women's event she had planned for almost 9 months. She was so excited because as of Thursday they had sold nearly 200 tickets. News of the event was on the radio, in the papers and advertised all over town. So as she was getting ready, her phone rang. It was me. Sick.

I had to give her news I'd never had to give another event coordinator before....that I might not make it. Dave, my husband was on the phone with the airlines at 4am checking on later flights and all were sold out, but they told him if I showed up, they might be able to get me on one. IF I showed up. IF I could get out of bed. I prayed, she prayed, she got her prayer team on it, I got my prayer partners on it, I got the Proverbs team on it. We prayed. I knew that if God wanted me there, He would heal me. He has the power. I don't. You don't. And satan doesn't. Hear me on this...satan doesn't. Because God ALWAYS has the final say. I was miserable, yes, because I couldn't keep anything down, but mostly because I was letting down nearly 200 women who were waiting on God's message that was being delivered thru me.

I said to Dave that, really, there was only one way to make that conference not happen. Take out the speaker. Think about it. It could go on with no food, it could go on with no music. But no speaker? Yep, take out the speaker. I received a text from my friend, Heather, who said these words, "Rest. Don't fight. God is in control." These words settled me as I remembered it was she who once told me, " God is never early, He is always on time." So all I have to go by as I sit here on Saturday night under the blankets still, is that, for whatever reason, the conference was too early. It wasn't supposed to be today. Perhaps we won't know the reason why until we cross from this side to the next and Jesus reveals it then, but I know, that I know, that I know, that God is in control. And with those words, I will rest. And I thank God for the grace that Bev and her team extended to me in postponing the conference till early Fall. Perhaps then, we'll know why it was too early. So for now, there were no cows for me in Iowa, no women to help dress and feel better about their appearance, but God knows why...and in that, finally, I will rest.