Aha moment... a.k.a. God moment

I was listening to a sermon last week that discussed God's presence in our lives. Something that really struck me was the fact that everything that happens to me is already known by God. It goes through what the pastor called a father filter and maybe, just maybe everything is perfectly designed for my life to shape me in the way that God wants me to be. Even my little problems that occur are designed specifically for me and are a challenge to see how I will react. Am I the only one that has never thought about that? It hit me like a train last week as I was up in Dalton, GA getting my shipment of computer tables into the school where I was to put together 177 tables with the help of one other person.

I was on a mission. I had my agenda set. 177 tables. I was figuring about 5 tables per hour each. That's 10 tables per hour for 2 people. 9 working hours. That's 90 tables per full day. We went up on Tuesday. We had to unload the truck that morning, so only a half day the first day. We had to go to another school with 15 of those tables. We should be in and out by end of day Thursday. Done deal. No going back. All tables complete. Another satisfied customer.

Ha.... That would be too easy.

As we are unloading the tables, I notice several pallets that are just wrecked. Looks like bent metal, crushed table tops, etc... It looked like a complete mess. We got all the tables out of the truck, inside, and assessed the damage. Okay, not as bad as I had thought, but now my mind goes back into calculation mode. Okay. We just lost 2 hours. We have about 20 damaged tables. Great... There goes being done on Thursday. I'm going to have to come back up here to put together 15 or 20 more tables. Such a small problem to others. I know. For me, my agenda was devastated. Then, I remembered just what I was listening to on the way up. God designs our life and puts obstacles in our way to see how we will handle them and grow because of them. He is our Father. He wants us to learn and grow and deal with problems that pop up. Not only that, but he is actually the designer of our lives and coordinates situations that gives us opportunities to grow and change while ultimately knowing the outcome. All of a sudden in that moment, it didn't matter that I will definitely have to come another day and possibly another after that. I knew that small issue was designed for me to see how I would overcome my ridiculous agenda that I always set for myself in completing the tasks of my life.

I learned through this that my focus on something gets so involved that I lose focus on the bigger picture. Sometimes my agenda is so narrow that I get upset at every little thing that is not a part of it. Is my life Adam's agenda or God's? Sometimes I forget who is really in charge.