Skip to main content

If You Are Praying for Rain, Bring an Umbrella



 Have you ever heard that? This idea that your preparation for the answer to your prayer coincides with your faith? I have heard it as direction to women to make space for the husband they say they want. I have heard it as start dressing for the position you expect. I have heard it as bring an umbrella to the prayer meeting if you are praying for rain. Sometimes I do because I am a planner. I expect a certain thing, and I do not want to be caught off guard. So I prepare. Other times, I do it as a move of faith. 


Right after I saw Hamilton in the spring, I knew I wanted to see it again. This time I wanted to share it with some specific people who I felt would enjoy it. One of these people was a minor, so it would take special permissions and coordination. As far as I knew, there was no precedent for it. I bought the tickets anyway. Months passed and I just waited and waited. I would not say this was something I was actively praying about, it was more a desire. I have found that I can express my desires to God just once, and see Him move in response. So although I was desiring the permission to take this kid to see Hamilton, I was not focused on it nor consumed by it. I just waited for the time to come. 

                                                      

However, the week of the performance I continued my preparation. I made room in my car. I vacuumed up from my usual companion, the dog and I waited. Eventually I could wait no longer, and asked for the permission. It was granted 2 nights before the performance. 

If I had waited to arrange housing, prep the car, hey even buy the tickets- my desire would not have come to pass. It would not have been the result of impossibility, but lack of preparation. Is there something you are desirous of God to do? Prepare for the desire to be granted. No God is not a genie, but He is a good Father. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

But What Are You Really Waiting For?

 Waits could be my middle name, especially during the summer months. Like clockwork summer ushers in a wave of transition and pressure points where waiting is critical. Have I mentioned that I hate to wait? I don't mean wait for an appointment. I am prepared for that. I have numerous means of distracting myself as I multitask and complete other projects. I mean waiting for something to happen in life that is pivotal to the next stage. I mean waiting, when you want to DO, but there isn't much to do other than wait. This is the sort of waiting that stretches me every summer. I am growing though. Growing and learning. Once upon a time this waiting season would have me paralyzed. Now I consistently move forward, but I find myself pausing to check the status of projects far too often.  The other day I found myself questioning what it was that I was actually waiting for. Oftentimes God has handled something. He has told us so. But we stay scanning the horizon for the proof. I had to...
Post a Comment
Tell Me More»

Happily Ever After?

 I was speaking with a friend the other night, and she commented that she didn’t remember the last time I was so happy. The reason she couldn’t remember was because any sort of happiness I had experienced previously had been so fleeting. She and I had met at the end of 2020. My whole life had gone through restructuring, so 2021 seemed promising.  Purposeful but painful is what 2021 turned out to be. Rather than height to height, 2021 traversed heights to valleys. What was hopeful collapsed. What was stable shifted to shaky. And what was foreign and unknown became my safety zone. I went from the familiar streets of DC to the mountains of North Carolina. I went from being one of many almost everywhere I went, to one of the only African Americans in the area. It was hard. Injustice was real, and the marriage I had been hoping for had imploded. 2022 brought new everything. New job. New place to live. New title: single mom. Constant change in which I found it hard to find more than...
Post a Comment
Tell Me More»

What would you grab if your building was on fire?

-bible -planner -wallet -laptop -ipad -phone charger -phone In hindsight I would have grabbed some of my journals.  Recently in my reading for school I was struck by a period in church history in which people did not know how to regard the Holy Spirit. The people often viewed Him as the lesser part of the Trinity. I too, could see myself as guilty. I would hear a prompting and debate, discuss, ponder, forget, and maybe on a good day obey. However, would I treat Jesus in such a manner? Or God the Father, if He manifested, perhaps in a burning bush? I would hope not!  So lately I have been trying to be more sensitive to the urgings of the Holy Spirit and immediately responsive .  Wednesday afternoon the prompting was to go to sleep. Now I did wonder if I was being lazy or trying to avoid life. 7 past due assignments will do that to you! However, it was true that my studying was proving futile as I dozed after every few minutes. I took a 3 hour n...
2 comments
Tell Me More»