God Was My Alarm Clock

Philippians 4:13 – I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

My last two weeks have been spent in back-to-back World Council of Churches meetings in Geneva, involving a great deal of last-minute document preparation. Each morning I had to get up early to finish what had to be done for that day.

The day of the second meeting, I woke up at 3:30 a.m., though my alarm had been set for 5:00. At the office, I was horrified to discover that the computer network was down, restricting access to vital documents and printing. I hooked up a small portable printer to print out what I could, and the network revived just in time to get the most urgent documents photocopied for the opening of the meeting. I spent the entire day working absolutely frantically, and everything was just AWFUL. It was definitely the worst day of my past ten years. But I finished everything that was necessary for the evening session by suppertime.

For those two weeks my alarm clock really was God. I would go to bed at night and set my alarm based on how long I thought I needed to finish what had to be done by the morning session. Almost always I woke up before the alarm and inevitably I needed every minute. The timing was exact. With a frantic schedule like this there's always a moment when I realize I'm operating solely by the grace of God — and God has always been faithful at working out the timing. It feels like a good collaboration between us: I do what I can, and God arranges the rest.

Prayer: Lord God, help us to believe that You will supply just enough time for us to accomplish everything that You want done. Enable us, by the power of Your Spirit, to resist the urge to panic, and instead, simply to trust You. In Jesus' name. Amen.