God Does JIT Prayer Response

What’s JIT?  In manufacturing JIT stands for “just in time”.  Rather than maintain large costly inventory levels, businesses prefer to work with their suppliers to ensure JIT delivery is available – enough components to fulfill customer demand without carrying excess inventory.

Did you know God practices JIT answer to prayer?  Have you been praying for something you’d like NOW but don’t see forth coming?  God sees the big picture of our lives and He knows the best time to deliver His answer to our prayers.

This concept was reinforced in our home this week.  The business my husband works for has been struggling to make ends meet for some time.  He anticipated a layoff notice sooner or later.

He started a job search in August.  In September he was interviewed by two different companies.  He’s short listed with one and is waiting for the VP to make herself available for final interviews.  The other said they had a contract position coming up and would contact him when it became available.

A week went by, then two, then three.  He contacted both companies in early October to be told the same thing – he was still a candidate, but for various reasons they weren’t ready to hire.  He continued to work and wait.

With his October 31^st pay cheque he was given two weeks’ notice by his current employer.  As of November 15, he no longer has a job.

I was frustrated and angry with God.  We’ve been trying to pay down debt and with a recent commission cheque it looked like we’d finally make progress in that area. We’d been praying for a new job but nothing was moving ahead.  Now it looked like the commission cheque was going to pay living expenses instead of debt.

I know I should have been grateful.  We had money to use if my husband didn’t get a job right away.  I wasn’t grateful.  I was angry.  I had it out with God in a prayer session, venting my frustration.

Fortunately God has big shoulders and listened patiently to my rant, eventually bringing me to a place of acceptance and trust in His provision.  He’s never failed to provide and I knew we needed to trust Him now.

A few days later my husband got a phone call.  One of the companies was ready to offer him a contract position.  All they needed was a criminal check.  If everything went according to plan they’d offer him a start date of November 13 – two days before he finished his last day with his current employer.  He sent in the forms and waited.

The next day his employer changed his mind on the planned end date and told him he was finished that day – one week earlier than originally agreed upon.  Now what?  There was still no official job offer.  We had to wait and trust.

The phone rang early the next morning.  They were emailing my husband the job offer and he starts the new position in three days.  God is good!

This is just one example of God’s amazing timing in our lives.  There have been many other incidents in our lives when God answered prayer at exactly the right time.

Even though I know from past experience I can trust God, I still struggle.  I like long term planning and security.  Sometimes God doesn’t move as quickly as I’d like.  But, while God is never early, He’s never late either.  God IS the master in JIT delivery when it comes to answering prayer!

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT:

Can you think of a time in your life when God delivered an answer to prayer just in time?  Are you waiting for one now?  Share your thoughts by clicking on “comments” below.

Not The Gold Medal Sprint!

I’ve commented on the similarities between running and doing life in a couple of archived posts.  (“Taking Life One Sidewalk Block At A Time” and “Philippians 3:13-14 – Perseverance – Persistence – Endurance”)  In “Philippians 3:13-14 – Perseverance – Persistence – Endurance”, I mentioned my personal goal to run 30 minutes continuously by the end of this summer.

I set the goal in May but reality found me struggling to maintain ten sets of a ratio that included running for two minutes, and walking for one minute.  If I was gasping like a diver with an empty air tank at this 20 minute ratio how would I ever get to 30 minutes of continuous running?

Deciding more research was required I started to read John Stanton’s book on running from the Running Room.  Here’s what I discovered...

Running requires you to pace yourself.  Stanton teaches you to run at a pace that allows you to talk comfortably.  TALK; heck I couldn’t even maintain basic priorities like breathing!

I discovered forcing yourself to slow down is quite challenging.  It takes practice and constant correction, but that’s exactly what you have to do if your goal is endurance.  In order to maintain a reasonable heart rate and add minutes to my running time each week I had to slow the pace. 

My mind and body tend to be at odds with this and generally have an ongoing argument sounding something like this...

MIND:   “Slow down, you’re going too fast.   You can’t maintain this pace.  We’re not setting any speed records.  The goal’s endurance and distance, not an Olympic gold sprinting medal.”

BODY:  “Must go faster, want to go faster, not going fast enough.  Somebody’s catching up and passing...must...go...FASTER!  Crap...can’t breathe!”

MIND:  “Told you so!”

I’ve finally settled down to a good pace, but periodically I still find my heart rate climbing out of the “talk comfortably” zone.  When this happened earlier in the week I found myself comparing this to periods of life when we’re waiting on God.

We think we know what needs to happen in our lives.  We rush forward and make our plans without consulting God.  Waiting on God can be as hard as trying to slow down the running pace.  It’s frustrating.  Our bodies twitch with an overwhelming desire to take action, but God asks us to wait for His direction and His timing.

Since I’ve slowed down I’m seeing weekly progression towards my goal.  I’m able to maintain four cycles of run eight minutes:walk one minute.  My running time within each cycle increases by one minute each week. 

Like the gradual running progression, we will only receive the very best God has in store for us when we slow down the pace and wait for His guidance and direction instead of pushing ahead on our schedule.

Think about it...you’re in this relationship with God for the long haul.  So slow down, wait, and listen for Him to speak to you.  Let Him steer you in the right direction at the right time, and the results will far exceed anything you could dream up for yourself. 

It may not happen overnight but if you pace yourself, and wait on God you’ll see this period of waiting in the rearview mirror and be able to appreciate the steps towards fulfilling His dreams for you.

Are you in a time of waiting?  Experiencing frustration?  Share your thoughts by clicking on “comments” below.

Living In The "In Between"

Do you feel out of synch with life? Not sure which way is up or which way is down? Have an uncomfortable feeling of not quite fitting in? Living in the “in between” stage of transition?

I lived in Calgary for seven years. I quite enjoyed living there, had great friends and a wonderful church community. I loved the beauty of the skyline –sparkling, glowing lights from the downtown area filling the night sky – and the breath taking view of the awe inspiring Rocky Mountains jutting up on the western horizon. Over the years the city became home, its threads woven into the fabric of my life; a part of me.

When I got married in June 2010 I knew I'd be leaving the city to start a new life with my husband in Stony Plain, a community just outside Edmonton three and a half hours away. He and his children lived there and our priority was to remain close to them. As is often the case, logistics interfered with life plans and I didn’t end up moving to Stony Plain until March of this year.

I travel for work and since I’ve moved I’ve experienced an odd sense of displacement. I get to the airport at the end of the week and check the departure monitor for my flight. I wonder why the flight time on the monitor differs from the one on my itinerary and am suddenly struck by the realization I’m automatically looking at Calgary flights instead of Edmonton flights. When I’m driving familiar routes through Saskatchewan I automatically point the car in the direction of Calgary, but quickly realize I need to head north to Edmonton, not west to Calgary.

This week as I drove into Calgary for work I experienced that “out of synch” feeling again. The city felt like home. After seven years of coming back to this city I was programmed to experience the feeling of being home when I got to the city limits. But another part of my brain quickly kicked in telling me this wasn’t home; my home was the house I share with my husband in Stony Plain. It was a strange sense of being pulled in two – the city of Calgary feels like home but I don’t have a home here. Our house in Stony Plain feels like home but the community around it doesn’t.

It’s an “in between” stage in the transition where old habits and feelings are weakening but new habits and connections haven’t been established yet. This odd sense of displacement is experienced in moves, in job changes and in other transitions in life where circumstances have changed but the mind hasn’t quite grasped the reality of the situation yet.

It takes time to adapt to change. I’m pleased that our house now feels like home and I hope one day when I reach the town limits of Stony Plain it too will feel as though I’ve come home.

Are you living in the “in between” stage of transition? Share your thoughts by clicking “comments” below.

Laugh Or Go Postal

Have you ever had one of those surreal days where so many things go wrong you either have to laugh or “go postal”? Today was one of those days and at the risk of turning this into a manic rant or epic whine I decided to share some of the events with you.

                My day starts in a Holiday Inn Express in Kamloops. I’m on my way to work at a trade show for the weekend (everyone’s dream job) and rather than hop on a two hour flight I’ve decided to drive the 1100 km through Canada’s breath-taking Rocky Mountains. I love this drive. The mountains are so awe inspiring and remind me how incredible God is. My car, the Impala, loves the drive because the steep inclines, sweeping curves and strategically placed passing lanes are perfect for its six cylinder, 3.8 L engine. It purrs along contentedly like our new four month old kitten, hugging every turn as tightly as a newly married couple. It’s such a pleasure to drive!

But back to the morning...since I drove for nine hours yesterday and have only four hours to go today I decide to sleep in. I set the alarm for 7:30 a.m., planning to be on the road by 9:00. There are two things wrong with this plan...

1) it’s June and the sun rises at 4:52 a.m. in Kamloops - the hotel doesn’t have blackout blinds

2) I entered a time zone that is an hour behind my home.

You see where I’m going with this? That’s right my body is programmed to wake up to light outside the window which at home happens around 6:30 a.m. except 6:30 a.m. is now 5:30. I stubbornly pull a pillow over my face and try to sleep but faced with a choice of suffocation by pillow or waking up, I choose the latter. After launching a guerilla attack on the free continental breakfast (an orange, scrambled eggs, pancakes, cinnamon bun and a tea) I roll outside to the car. The drive is uneventful; I listen to an audio book and marvel at the sight of never ending lush green forests clinging to the side of jagged mountain peaks.

Typically I work out at Curves three times per week and have learned when I travel I MUST head straight to Curves when I get into town. Once I my butt takes root in the hotel room I’m not leaving. The GPS guides me through the unfamiliar city to the address for Curves...it’s not there. Crap! I do a search on the GPS and it helpfully tells me there’s one two km away.  I naively follow the directions from the GPS to the new address...no Curves. OK, this is getting a little old now. I pull out my Blackberry (isn’t technology great), open the web browser and find another address with a phone number.  Let’s not be stupid about this. I call the number, but my cell phone provider (who shall remain nameless) tells me, “We’re sorry all circuits are busy, please try again later.” Perfect! I dial again, and again, and again and listen to the same message again, and again and...again. I give up and punch the address into the GPS, only five km away...fine! Off I go and you guessed it...no Curves. By now I’ve wasted 45 minutes of my afternoon, and I think it’s going on 2:30 local time. I say “I think” because the day before my Blackberry automatically adjusted its time for the time zone but for some reason known only to the Blackberry software it bounced back to my original time zone this morning, which completely disorients me. I give up on the Curves workout and find lunch instead. Out of spite I order a greasy burger with sweet potato fries and chipotle mayo. Take that hips, thighs and waist! Better than ordering a potentially e-coli infested salad!

                I head to the conference hotel. It’s an old hotel on the corner of the Trans Canada highway in Abbotsford (can you say LOUD traffic). I stagger into the lobby, fighting to get my suitcase and computer bag through the non-automatic doors and check in. The clerk hands me my room key – I’m on the second floor. I glance around the lobby...no elevator! I don’t travel light...never have, never will. I wrestle my expansion suitcase, computer bag containing two laptops and a bunch of paperwork, book bag containing a small library (just in case I have some spare time), grocery bag containing bottles of water and snacks and my purse (the smallest thing in the group) up the two flights of stairs to the second floor and down the hall to my room. A large sliding patio door faces the busy highway, perfect...noisy traffic all night, but that’s OK I travel with earplugs.  I walk over to the door to see if there's perhaps a sunny spot on the narrow balcony where I might bask with my book. The door opens easily...too easily. It won’t lock. OK, I’m on the second floor, doubtful that anyone is going to “Spiderman” up the building in the middle of the night and break into my unlatched door. Then I realize there’s an adjoining room sharing the same balcony. This is too much! There’s no way I’ll sleep knowing someone could coming blundering through my unlatched balcony door in the middle of the night. I walk down to the lobby, explain the situation to the front desk clerk and soon I’m wrestling all my worldly travelling belongings down the hall to another room.

                OK, time for a run on the treadmill. I know I say that as though it’s something I do often. Actually it’s something that I just decided to start this week. For reasons known only to God, I’ve had a sudden desire to start running (maybe it’s a way of learning discipline and perseverance). Whatever the case, I went for my first run (or feeble attempt) on Wednesday, the day before I chose to sit in a car and drive for nine hours. I was so stiff by the time I got out of that car on Thursday evening I thought I’d have to call 911 to come and lift me out in a permanently seated position. But I’m determined to keep going so I optimistically head for the fitness room. There are two treadmills, a TV and a stepper.  “Out of Order” signs hang mournfully from one treadmill and the stepper. The one working treadmill has a dire warning printed across it stating, “DO NOT USE THE INCLINE BUTTON”. No chance of that! I start the hunt for the television remote, lose the battle, turn it on manually, crank up the volume and start to jog on the treadmill.  I’m ramping up for a second ten minute stint of running when suddenly everything goes black! Lights go out, TV shuts off and the treadmill shuts down abruptly, sending me lurching forward like a drunk falling off a curb. I flail madly for an instance before clutching the bar in front of me. I stand there in disbelief. Seriously! Back to the front desk. The clerk tries resetting one circuit breaker to no avail, and then gets on the phone to Maintenance. It turns out the circuit breaker is located in the guest room outside the fitness room (don’t ask me why, I decided I didn’t want to know). She knocks on the door, it opens and she asks if she can come inside to look at the circuit breaker. A women’s voice says her husband is in the shower and  it’s not a good time. That’s it, I can’t take anymore!

It’s now 9:00 pm, I’ve had my run (outside), every muscle aches and I’m sure I’ll be walking like a 95-year-old tomorrow, if I’m walking at all. I’ve been obsessively saving this as I type because the way the day has gone my computer might decide to crash just to end the day on a high note!

                I know we all have days like this. Sometimes it’s hard to keep your cool and not lose it totally, but if you think about it, it’s really kind of funny. Next time you’re frustrated try seeing the humour in the situation. Anybody out there want to share some funny or frustrating travel experiences? Click on “comments” below.

LOST

Do you have times in your life when you feel you’re wandering around in the dark looking for something but you’re not sure what that “something” is? How about the feeling that you’re supposed to be going somewhere but you’re not sure where? Maybe you feel as though each day comes and goes but you accomplish nothing that really matters at the end of the day. Is this the definition of being lost?

I ask these questions because this is how I’ve felt the last week or so. Everything in life is new – new town, new husband, new house, new instant teenagers, new church, new faces, new surroundings...and so it goes. Before I moved I knew who I was, I seemed to have purpose and activities and people to occupy my thoughts and time. Now I’m not sure how this new life fits together. I’m not sure who I am in this new role as wife and step-mother or how it all fits with whom I was before. Even my relationship with God seems to have changed, it’s become harder somehow to find Him. Everything is just a little out of balance. The days go by but suddenly I don’t seem to have purpose.

Just out of curiosity I looked up the definition of lost on www.dictionary.com and here’s a bit of what I found, “having gone astray or missed the way, bewildered as to place, direction, etc.; not used to good purpose, as opportunities, or labour; wasted; destroyed or ruined; distracted; distraught; desperate; hopeless...” Some of these definitions seem to fit. Perhaps I am lost. Others are downright frightening - desperate, hopeless, destroyed or ruined – no I don’t think so!

I think it’s more a temporary loss of focus and purpose that has me feeling disoriented and adrift in the sea of life. I know God has called me here for a reason and in time that reason will be revealed. It’s the waiting and lack of direction that leaves me struggling and wondering if I’m floating aimlessly through life. This lack of master plan and lack of direction is totally a foreign concept to me and I’m left with all these odd, and at the moment, unresolved questions. What does the future hold? Where will we find a church home? When will I be part of a ministry again? Where does God want me to serve? So many questions and so few answers.

What questions are you struggling with today? Does any of this sound familiar? Share your thoughts by clicking on “comments” below.