God Grabs You at the Last Second

Man plans, God laughs: His plans are always better than ours

Believers worry less. They’re confident everything happens for a reason. Gallup found the “highly religious” are 24 percent less likely to be diagnosed with depression than the moderately religious.

Non-believers worry more. Gallup found they were 17 percent more likely to be depressed and had higher levels of worry, stress, sadness, and anger. As the wise Fulton Sheen explained: “all worry is atheism.’’

We expect something, give up, and then — surprise — God grabs you at the last second.

“Get up! Pick up the youth and grab his hand, because I will make a great nation of his descendants.” (Genesis 21:18, ISV).

How often do we do this same thing over and over?

You get hopeful for something; time passes, you give up, convince yourself, “That’s it.” You put the hope out of your mind. And when you least expect it…

He grabs you again. Boom, the thing you’d given up on happens. Or something even better than you imagined. Man plans, God laughs. A tremendous sense of humor and mystery. And He loves surprises.

“Even there your hand would guide me, your right hand would grab hold of me.” (Psalm 139:10, NET).

God’s Plan is always more interesting than our imagination

When something’s meant to be, “you just know.” Everything clicks. I had “that feeling” about a project involving a national TV network and books, but then “we’ll call you this week” turned into next and the week after with no word.

OK, onto the next thing which suddenly looked doubtful. Then something else interesting popped up. And just when I’d given up, bang, a totally unexpected surprise. And then another one.

The best thing about believing in a Higher Plan is you never need to worry. Just remind yourself everything happens for a reason, that He is always in control and we need to ride the waves of life.

The worst thing? When something terrible happens, your closest friends say, (whatever you hoped for that you just lost) “wasn’t God’s Plan.” True, but you’d probably rather hear more sympathy. But you know from every story how these things always wind up.

“Reach down from above! Grab me and rescue me from the surging water, from the power of foreigners,’’ (Psalm 144:7, NET).

Like our Father teaching us to ride a bicycle, He wants us to learn, so we pedal and pedal. He seems to let go, convincing us we are doing it all ourselves, and maybe we’re alone now. And as soon as we think He’s gone, we are reminded He was there all along.

Sometimes it’s as simple as opening a Bible, flipping through the pages, and happening upon a page picked at random telling you precisely what you need to hear at that moment.

“Grab hold of my instruction in lieu of money and knowledge instead of the finest gold,” (Proverbs 8:10, ISV).

The Liar convinces us we don’t fit in, that we aren’t holy

Two years after its release, Matthew Kelly’s “The Biggest Lie in the History of Christianity’’ remains a best seller. Its focus is how the father of lies routinely convinces us of the same lie he told our first mother Eve.

It’s the same move demons always pull. The old line that you can’t be holy, that you aren’t like those high and mighty “Christians.’’ He’s called the divider because he’s always thinking of ways to divide us from others.

During the spring lockdowns, more than 4 billion (half the world) were locked down, separated from each other. When we emerged, churches had all sorts of new restrictions: masks, limits on singing. So we find ourselves more drawn to new Christian groups like our Bonfire men’s group.

Bonfire meets monthly, men walking through the woods and sitting outside, praying together. We also share the original Christian “ice-breaker’’ of testimony: one man tells his story, making us realize our fears aren’t unique.

We aren’t alone

“When anxiety grabs my mind, it is self-perpetuating. Worrisome thoughts reproduce faster than rabbits, so one of the most powerful ways to stop the spiral of worry is simply to disclose my worry to a friend… The simple act of reassurance from another human being [becomes] a tool of the Spirit to cast out fear — because peace and fear are both contagious.” ― John Ortberg, The Me I Want to Be: Becoming God’s Best Version of You.

The young man and his wife and kids joined our Church at Easter 2019. I knew he was young, but I had no idea he was younger than our kids because his whole family seems so “together’’ and mature. They’re going places.

We dropped our jaws, stunned with this completely “together’’ young man with a house, a good job, a stay-at-home wife, two kids, and one on the way revealed he was just 28. Just 12 years earlier? He was 16 — and homeless:

“I thought for a second that I had the power to do whatever I wanted to do in myself but I was misguided,’’ he taught us. “I was lost. I was a boat in the sea without a compass, without a map.’’

He spoke of being hurt, abandoned, full of pain, anger, “and then I found Jesus or rather, Jesus found me through Scripture.’’

“An older man approached me while I was sitting there homeless,’’ he said. “He didn’t have anything to give me. He didn’t want to give me food, he didn’t want to give me water, he didn’t want to give me money. But what he desired to give me that day was a Bible and I never let go of it.’’

“I never stopped reading it, I never stopped praying to God from that moment Every night, I hit my knees. I pray and thank God for my life.’’

He taught us about being 16, homeless, how easy it is to get involved with “the wrong people, the wrong crowd’’ posing as a new kind of family ready to take advantage of weaknesses.

“My life was in jeopardy and I heard a voice. A still, small quiet voice in my heart said ‘You need to run.’ I know today that it was God but years ago I thought it was chance.

“By listening to the Spirit at that moment I discovered that God had my best intentions in His heart, He knew my heart, He loved me. I was His beloved, that He desired to be with me. I was His child. And He saved me so now every day I walk in respect, in reverence for our Lord Jesus Christ because He spoke to me and He saved me.’’

Without prayer, he teaches, we are nothing but that ship without the compass, nothing but a traveler without a map. We are primarily a book with no words in it, an iPhone without data, empty vessels depending on Christ to bring new life within us.

“But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’’ (Romans 8:37–39 NASB).

We get filled up with ideas that let us down. Then we are broken and emptied. And when we’ve allowed the love (which is God) or truth (which is God) of another brother or sister’s story to touch us, we feel whole again.

And that’s the moment when God sneaks in again and grabs us once more.