Days before a scheduled flight, I broke my foot. “No weight bearing” mandate from the doctor translated to requiring wheelchair assistance at the airport. It was not the way I wanted to travel. The name of the game was waiting and trusting. Waiting on the attendant with the wheelchair; trusting he or she knew how to get to the correct gate. Waiting to enter the plane with assistance; trusting someone was waiting for me when the plane landed. As well, I had to learn to take things in stride, like when my “driver” had no qualms about yelling, “Beep beep!” when the concourses were full of people. For someone who prefers to not be the center of attention, I went from quickly embarrassed to borderline humiliated. That trip revealed how much I like to be in control.

Can you relate? How do you handle life when life gets hard to handle? Embarrassment and frustration at my circumstances were an initial reaction for me during travel that day. But the more I rested in God’s plan (even though it was NOT how I would have planned the trip!) the more peace and joy bubbled up within. I remember an almost tangible moment-by-moment surrender that day, as I continually put my life in God’s hands, trusting He was with me, and going to get me to my (literal) destination.

2 Peter 1:3 says, “For His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.” Everything we need for life and godliness. There is no caveat to how life is going at the moment; we are able to receive everything we need through our knowledge of Him. And there is the key:

For every ask, He offers Himself. For every plea, every cry, every request, He offers Himself as the answer. We may want the answer to look like a specific prognosis, a certain relationship, a particular job, a desired outcome. But in the receiving of His presence, we find our deepest need fulfilled: we are known, we are loved, we are not alone. We have full access to unlimited power via a relationship with God. A relationship that not only provides the strength we need to accomplish what lies before us, but also the intimacy we crave to heal the wounds within us.

My inconvenient flight revealed a heart desiring situations and outcomes to look a certain way: my way. But more than a desired outcome, God desired me, my attention, my trust. Would I trust Him in all things? Will you?