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Jan 21, 2023 06:00am

Learning to Trust in the Chaos

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About two months ago, as Thanksgiving was fast approaching, I was looking forward to a little breather. My wife and I had recently moved, and combining the hectic clutter of unpacking with work and planning end-of-year events for a youth ministry (plus frequent appointments for my expecting wife), my mind was frayed and frazzled.

I was excited for a few days’ break. I had scheduled my work a few weeks in advance, we had canceled Wednesday night youth services, and everything was in place so I wouldn’t have to do anything the week of Thanksgiving other than relax. I could almost feel the preemptive calm.

But Monday of that week, disaster struck.

I was on my way to the church office when a check engine light came on in my car. I called my pastor to let him know I might not be in for a few hours, and after calling my dad for advice, pulled into an AutoZone. They checked my car, and the readout alerted me that I had a misfiring cylinder. Having just moved to a new town, I wasn’t familiar with any mechanics in the area, so I called the mechanic I had used in the town from which we had just moved.

He told me due to the shortened work week, he would recommend getting it in to him that day, or he might not have it back to me before Thanksgiving. I was hesitant to drive the interstate with a misfiring cylinder, so after some prayer and more advice from my dad, I took the back road and went.
I’ll finish that story later.

On Tuesday, we received a letter in the mail from our previous apartment complex. My assumption was that it would be a return on our deposit. Upon opening the letter, I discovered that could not have been further from the truth. In fact, it was a bill for nearly one thousand dollars—citing urine stain damages to the carpet that required the entire thing to be torn out and replaced.

My wife and I have never owned or even temporarily cared for a pet, so naturally we were rather confused. Another call to my dad, and we decided to protest the bill and ask for proof of the damages.

We’ll come back to this story, too. Because also on Tuesday, my wife learned that a nurse had misplaced some important test results, and she would have to go back again the following week to repeat a strenuous test. It was not a good day.

Somehow, despite everything, I managed to have a relatively stress-free Thanksgiving Day. I kept my mind off the issues and prayed God would work things out. I enjoyed time with my family.

On Friday, I went to the grocery store to pick up a few things for lunch. When I came out to the car, I discovered a flat tire. For the second time that week, I found myself calling my mechanic. And for the innumerable time that week, I found myself calling my dad. With my dad’s help, I got a spare tire (or an idiot wheel, or a donut tire, however you may have heard it called) on the car.

But the idiot wheel was flat, too.

At that point, I had about had it with my week. Everything was a mess, and I was at the end of my rope.

But God.

On Monday…I got to the mechanic safely. While he worked on my car, I was able to enjoy lunch with my dad and my brothers. This was the first time the four of us had ever gotten together as just the guys in our family. When lunch was over, I returned to the mechanic to find he was finished with the car and the cylinder he replaced was one he had already fixed a year before, so he did the job completely free of charge.

But God.

On Tuesday…we had no answers for the apartment issue right away, nor to my wife’s test results. We had to wait for those answers. But my wife took the test again, and the results came back the way we were hoping. And with legal guidance, we disputed the charge our apartment was unjustly bringing against us.

But God.

On Friday…my dad and I managed to limp my car along to a gas station, fill the spare tire with air, and get the car back to the mechanic. The mechanic did not have a replacement tire that day, but God provided transportation for us until the tire was finally replaced the following Monday. The tire was still under warranty, so we didn’t have to pay anything other than the cost of labor and new coverage for the replacement tire.

That was one of the most chaotic weeks of my life. There were times where I submitted to despair and discouragement as the chaos warred around me. There were also times where I remembered to lean into God and believe He was going to take care of us. Getting that cylinder replaced free of charge at the beginning of the week was a huge faith reinforcer.

We can’t wait until all is good to check our faith in God. Life rarely slows down, and it can be a trial by fire. There’s nothing like on-the-job training. That’s exactly what my wife and I got that week. We had to strengthen our faith in God in the moment, as the craziness and the chaos happened. It wasn’t easy, and it was only by His grace.

Whatever circumstances you’re facing, trust God in the moment. It may not be easy, but He will always come through, so keep believing. In the end, you’ll look back on a story of chaos and see how His hand was at work in every little detail.