WHERE PROVIDENCE MEETS EVERYDAY CORE BELIEFS
Credit: Lynn Byk
Throughout her twenties, Zippy had enjoyed her single life to the full extent, pursuing her passions, and what she believed was God’s will for her life. As Zippy turned 30 and realized all her siblings were married along with many of her friends, a mass of green clouds over the graphite wilderness disturbed her. She did not yet have a serious boyfriend. She had not really planned for what happened after thirty.
Core Belief: There's More than One Way to Cuddle a Cat
Confused, Zippy reconsidered her conviction that God’s sovereignty guided her throughout life. Did it apply to finding her a spouse? Maybe the dating apps that so many of her friends used could be an option for her. Zippy thought it over at the time, but there was no way that Zippy would put her face and experiences out there along with her niche desires. Zippy considered dating apps to be “meat markets,” and waited.
Providentially, that very year Zippy met her husband-to-be at work. Providentially, several others who actively prayed and tried dating apps also found love. The key was getting direction from God and trusting him as the young adults moved forward with their desires and goals.
Core Belief: Where Important Choices Intersect with Providence
Zippy’s friend Elsie was one of those who found a mate through a dating app. Unafraid, she believed God had technology well in hand. Here they were, many years later, still friends. Zippy drove Elsie to a doctor’s appointment and waited with her while she checked in.
The receptionist took Elsie’s insurance card. Zippy heard her friend naming her husband as the primary holder and when asked if Elsie had a secondary insurance. “No,” replied her friend, and she took a seat.
Elsie’s husband had developed a heart condition this year making her wonder what she would do if he died. She now believed that taking steps of one’s own was well within the sovereignty and providence of God’s plan for her life. Elsie, however, hadn’t earned an income for several years due to having to fight a city lawsuit for the right to house a foreign student and a missionary in her spare bedrooms.
Core Belief: Bullying-through-it Meets and Greets Rest, with a Kiss
She turned to her friend. “Zippy, do you think God cares about hospitality and mentoring and justice as much as I think he does? Doesn’t he care about my not having a contribution to my household income?”
Zippy remembered a scripture about God’s eye seeing Hagar in the desert with her baby son. “I’ve watch your perseverance and fortitude, my friend. God knows I couldn’t do what you are doing, but your path is different from mine. When I recently read in Genesis about Hagar being thrown out of her home, her place of work, and her son's inheritance, to die by heat stroke or the jackals, God came and told her to go back to the woman who threw her out, and she was to stay there as the woman’s begrudged servant. God said, ‘I see you. I will make your offspring a great nation. Don’t give up hope because of your situation.’ When I read that, it comforted me.”
“Well, it isn’t so much about comfort as it is about bullying through something when people keep telling me the battle belongs to the Lord, just lay your burdens down, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera,” moaned Elsie.
Zippy smiled at her downtrodden friend, warming the clinical waiting room with afternoon sunshine. “Hey, what are those Old Testament verses about soldiering on, not being afraid, in Deuteronomy, and not looking to the right or the left in Joshua, setting your face like flint, you know? For God goes with you into battle…He goes with you, not instead of you. The battle isn’t the thing we’re meant to drop. It doesn’t say drop your sword and shield and put booties on. He says don’t grow weary in doing well, for in due time, you’ll reap!”
Zippy leaned over and hugged Elsie, “You’re gonna reap, baby, and that’s where I think the ‘rest in the Lord’ part comes in.”
Elsie sighed. “Resting is confidence in the Lord. I get it. Thanks for reminding me.”
Zippy became rueful. “Else, God isn’t gonna leave you to the jackals in the desert, either. God gave you gifts to use and to steward for the sake of building up God’s kingdom. You aren’t doing anything illegal, and you are following the desire of your heart to guard and care for others. The Bible says to be hospitable, and it also says to obey your authorities, so you are doing both by working through our legal system.”
Elsie went through her doctor’s appointment, heartened by her friend’s support.
When she arrived home, she picked up her Bible and did a little research. When she came to Colossians 3:23-24, she read, “Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive an inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”
“Oh, God! Thank you for today, for bringing me wisdom and this confirmation!” Refreshed, Elsie was ready to go back to her work. And, eventually, the Lord did vindicate her with new laws, a home free of a mortgage, and a lot of rest and happiness.
Core Belief: Does God Care to Fulfill Our Human Desires Much?
Her career was again waylaid when Elsie started caring for her 90-year-old mom-in-law. First, it was just a few hours a week, then, it became shopping, doling out medicines, ushering her mom to all kinds of appointments, and generally, being her companion.
Entering a whole new phase of life came with a new set of problems to challenge her faith. Having stepped away from her job, Social Security statements became laughable, as did her tax returns. Did it pay to do the right thing when in a practical way, Elsie was denying her own livelihood?
As she confessed all of this to Zippy over a salad, Elsie’s nervous knee began acting up, first in secret under the table, then her foot began tapping the ground. Shouldn’t she be doing something more, making more of her days?
Core Belief: God, Being True to His Word, May Not Be Recognized at First
One afternoon, Elsie's husband, a few years her senior, came home from work saying the administration had hosted a retirement seminar for employees. Unfortunately, he’d need to work longer to cover her insurance until Elsie could take social security. Thankfully, he had been consistently investing in the company’s matching employee savings plan. Unfortunately, this faithfulness would only last them ten years at the minimum payout.
“Maybe we’ll die in an accident together and won’t need it,” Elsie muttered.
Angst set in for both of them. For the next week, cat fights amped up, each one spitting sour garbage with wounded screeches from the trash heap.
The couple had watched as inflation careened their peer population of lower middle-class earners down the road to bankruptcy. “We’re not yet there,” said her husband, “but neither can we face retirement yet. We have no idea how to choose either an early collection, or late, of social security benefits. And what about the high costs of interim health insurance? We need to consult with someone, ‘cuz, I’m so tired of work.”
Investment representatives painted a bleak landscape of the couple’s future due to their specific personal factors. None of this fit with Elsie’s conviction that the Lord rewards those who follow him.
Elsie cried at God with all the bitterness of a rotten tomato. “I trusted you. Why haven’t I been able to bring in an income all these years? What are you going to do now?”
Core Belief: “God Never Fails” Meets Acute Disappointment
Should Elsie have made a different decision, gone back to work in the city, since apparently, God had failed her?
She called her friend, Zippy. “The thought of riding public transportation; the fear after 9/11; the feeling of wasting my opportunities in life by working for another’s agenda all came flooding back to mind. But, I’m not sure I succeeded in my interests and passions. All kinds of things have stopped me and diverted my goals! I’m not sure what to think.”
Zippy listened well. Then she said, “I’m like you and many, many others, don’t you think? We make life decisions based on our own core values, and how we’ve been taught by parents, peers, and mentors. But, that doesn’t mean we get heaven on earth. I think for all our efforts, we’ve both struggled. ‘Life happened while we were making plans,’ as the Beatles coined the phrase.
Elsie laughed.
Core Belief: God Uses Friends to Lighten and Sharpen Us
“But, Elsie, do you think the course of our lives has surprised the Lord? I don’t think so. Yeah, us, but not him. James says that we can’t say, ‘I’m going to do business here, because only God knows what will actually happen.’ You and I have lived long enough to see how true it is!”
Elsie felt better after counseling with her friend.
“Else, before you hang up, can I confide something in you?”
Core Belief: “Confession is Good for the Soul” Needs a Soft Landing
“Sure!”
“I had a problem in high school of taking little souvenirs from places I liked, like a spoon from a good coffee bar, or a cloth napkin from a cute café. I used to always ask the waiter for a final drink to-go in a cup that I could sip in my car after a meal was over. Then, when I started work, I’d steal stamps to mail out my own bills. One day the word, “pilfering” came to mind, so I looked it up and the Holy Spirit showed me how I was actually stealing and excusing my own theft. I shocked myself when last summer I was tempted in an outdoor market to stuff something into my big purse. It was a wake-up call! Don’t be shocked, K? Don’t hang up.”
Elsie smirked, “I would never! I was hooked at the thought of someone I admire admitting she’s a thief! Ha.
“Well, I used to be. God has separated my sin from me. That’s what I want to tell you. The light turned on after that festival. I sat down and asked God why I was doing it. I realized that I held onto an amulet of poverty and frugality to the point of sin! It gave me a high to get something frivolous on a whim. It felt rich. Of course, I know now that things don't make me rich. I wasn’t trusting him to give me what I need, and I certainly wasn’t trusting him to give me good gifts, you know, like a good father gives a child, like a bridegroom spoils a bride.
I always felt poor! It’s not like I needed anything that I’d ever pilfered. I just wanted it without a debt or an invoice attached. Eh-hem. I wanted to stay a child.
What if every customer took a piece of silverware? I should have been more responsible and asked God for it, looked at my budget, and made a more honorable decision. Since that come-to-Jesus hour, I’ve successfully resisted temptation. Even joyfully, and expectantly, I resisted taking some flowers today by hiding them from the checkout clerk. I’m excited to see how God blesses my honest flowers and veggie sprouts this summer.”
Core Belief: God Will Never Leave You or Forsake You
After the women hung up, Elsie still enjoying a bit of wonder, sifted the mail which was all business or junk mail these days. A postcard invitation to a retirement seminar stood out to her. She shouted to her husband, “We should go to this, honey!”
The couple took notes at this retirement seminar and set an appointment with the fiduciaries in charge of the presentation. At their follow-up meeting, it became clear that Elsie had nothing to worry about. God had protected them through an estate gift. That asset investment would be their health care protection if something serious occurred.
Elsie and her husband shed a few tears when they realized God had not let them down. He had provided for everything they needed. Elsie had to apologize to God for her attitude and distrust.
Core Belief: God is An Anchor in Our Storms
“I won’t complain anymore, Lord. You are good even behind the scenes. I was focusing on things falling apart, things I didn’t know, and the struggles in life, and here you were quietly providing an anchor.”
─ Lynn Byk is a Capture Books Author of Fictional Realism
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