Sequences

     Since circumstances are the least reliable method of knowing God's will, I try not to use them for guidance. Circumstances are easy to manipulate and interpretation of their meaning is subjective. Still, I remember when I first trusted Christ and looked back at the hundreds of events God used to bring me to that point. I was amazed that God went to so much trouble to draw me to Himself. Individual circumstances may be misleading, but sometimes sequences of events can be significant. My mother used to say, "God sometimes does one thing to do another." She was partly right, but needed to increase another exponentially. God is the ultimate recycler, He wastes nothing. Especially for those who belong to him.
     A recent example of God using a sequence of events in my life is:  my neck and shoulders knotted up painfully + causing me to make one of my rare visits to the chiropractor + who also did acupressure to strengthen my knee = stronger knee. God knew it never would have occurred to me to go to the chiropractor for my knee problem by itself. Another vivid example is when we moved into this house. The day after we moved in, I got the stomach flu + causing me to send Will out to the  garage freezer for a popsicle + where Will noticed the freezer wasn't working = in time to save hundreds of dollars in food. We discovered that the outlet we had plugged the freezer into did not work but, thanks to my flu, we discovered it before the food thawed.
     These sequences are seldom as obvious as those above and sometimes the sequence is one bad thing after another with the benefit unrecognizable until much later, as in the story of Joseph. Such was our experience is getting to Kalispell. The company my husband worked for went bankrupt just a few months after we bought a house and two months before our baby was due + though all the other mechanics found jobs that paid as much or more, Reed's new job barely paid our bills + a job offer came from Kalispell = moving to where we really wanted to be--western Montana. We made enough on our house to have  a down payment for one in Kalispell, and we had Will at home so the bill was minimal, but there were a lot of tears and questions before all that good stuff happened. God did not just pry our fingers off our life in Billings, He dynamited them off.
     Now that I know that the trial sequences are detours to direct me toward greater blessing, I can relax on life's rough roads and sometimes even enjoy the view.