Recently I remembered a story about waiting and God’s strange timing.

I attended a private liberal arts college, but I struggled financially to stay there. I worried I’d have to quit to attend a state college. The problem was I truly believed God wanted me at the college where I attended. (In retrospect, it was at this college where God orchestrated a group of people to pray for me and help me find significant healing).

So I heard from a scholarship that I applied for that I hadn’t received it. I was second, they told me. That scholarship would’ve enabled me to stay. I was devastated. Why did they tell me I was second?

A few weeks later as I contemplated moving to another college, the scholarship committee contacted me and said I could have the scholarship if I wanted it. Their initial selection was, come to find out, not qualified.

I praised God for the provision, and I also learned that His timing was not only perfect, but the elongation of it taught me valuable lessons about myself, how little I trusted. The delayed response also taught me how God could supersede even what I perceived as impossible circumstances.

Recently our new teaching pastor spoke about prayer. He said we often try to take care of things for God. We come up with simple solutions for God to provide for us, then give Him the list. If He doesn’t answer according to our carefully thought out list, we become disillusioned. Oh how this convicted me! I try to help God out, devising my own answers to prayer.

Like: “God, I see how I’ll be successful as a novelist. All You have to do is a, b, or c.” But God hasn’t answered me with a, b, or c. He answers me with d: none of the above. And His answers are higher than mine, wildly creative, and always have my growth in mind. God is bigger. So much bigger.

So as I wait (and you wait), remember to trust that God is big enough to answer your request in crazy, wild, out of this world ways. Be expectant. Be peaceful. Trust. Rest.