Trusting is An Adventure!

     As I sit here, look out over the Black Sea and read this God Story #5, I am overwhelmed.  All those years ago when I   sensed God say, "I will take you on another path" I was scared.  Scared of everything changing, it was not what I had planned for my life and I didn't understand any of it!  

     Now as I look back and see the path He took me on, I am overwhelmed!  So much more than I could have imagined and to think I thought life was over, I was ready to die.

     But it has truly been an adventure; not always easy, sometimes downright difficult, but an adventure.  As I stare out over the sea here on the east coast of Scotland, I have such a thankful, grateful heart.  I have seen so much, done so much, met so many people and come to see who I am, who my Creator is and grasping more and more about the community of humanity God wanted.  Could I have done that if my husband had not walked out that door all those years ago?  I don't know, I am not saying God caused it to happen to teach me; but did He allow it and worked it all out for my highest and best?  I think so.  I am so glad I decided to trust Him when I couldn't see anything good in front of me and part of what I want to do with these God stories is encourage you that no matter where you are right now .....you can trust your Creator too.  He cares about you and wants your highest and best also!

Trusting God is An Adventure

     I was sitting at the back of the airplane.  We had just taken off.  I couldn’t believe it; I was flying.  I looked out of the window, there were the clouds; they were right beside us!  I looked over at my instructor, she was sitting beside me.  She saw the awe on my face and finally asked the question; “You have never flown before, have you?”  I had not wanted to tell her, but I couldn’t help myself.  I said, “No I haven’t, this is amazing! I have never seen anything like it.”

     She stared a bit longer and then laughed.  She said, “I can’t believe that someone applied to be a flight attendant and had never flown before!”  She asked if I was ok, did I have any motion sickness.  I said absolutely not. 

     I was on Piedmont Airlines and a group of us were having our first practice trip.  In just a few minutes we were going to take the cart up the aisle and offer drinks and peanuts.  I was so thankful and couldn’t believe I was doing what I was doing.  I was about to become a flight attendant.  I had 2 more weeks of training to complete, and then I was moving to Washington D.C. to live.  I was going to be based out of National Airport.  Washington D.C., can you believe that?  From a little girl that had never left a small town in North Carolina to the big city of D.C.  I was in awe.

     I had been working in the operating room as a registered nurse for a couple of years.  I loved the job and the people, but I had a desire to travel, to see the world.  Well first I wanted to see the United States, but the hospital was so short of nurses, they would not let me have any time off.  I had asked for a 6 month leave of absence; they thought I was crazy. 

     I was growing in my relationship with God.  My husband and I had been divorced for a couple of years now.  Even though I told him I had met Someone that could put our marriage back together if we both trusted Him and depended on Him.  He said he didn’t understand and would rather move forward with the woman he was seeing than deal with all the work it would take to put our marriage back together…..plus he really didn’t think he could depend on this Someone. 

     I was so sad the day I got the divorce papers in the mail.  I had told my husband he would have to go ahead with the paperwork, the lawyer and the filing of the divorce; that this was his decision, not mine.  Because I was willing to trust God with our marriage; I knew He could put it back together and it would be better than before, but it would take a choice from both of us.  He had said no, so he had to file.

     I received the papers one day when I came home from the hospital, walked down the stairs to my cozy apartment, opened the door and sat in the floor.  The papers fell on the floor in front of me.  God had already brought much healing in my heart, I had forgiven my husband and God had worked that truth out in my feelings, but I was just so sad how it all turned out.  I hated the site of those papers; they represented such pain, sadness, the breaking of a covenant before the God that I had come to know.  But I didn’t know what else to do.  I had done everything God had asked me to do.  I had asked my husband for forgiveness for my part of the failure in the marriage; I told him I forgave him and I was willing to come back together and work on our marriage.  He had said no.

     I had to trust God.  Oh that was so hard and I didn’t really understand what all it meant.  I sat in the floor and cried for 2 hours, cried over what I thought could be; the life that I thought I was going to have….the children we were going to have…..my childhood sweetheart who I had known since I was 15.  He was the sweet man that had helped me through such a hard time when my parents separated.  I cried over the loss of a family that I had come to love.  I had become so close to my husband’s parents; his sister, brother and their families, now I would lose them too.  I cried until I couldn’t cry any more.

     I finally got up off of the floor, gathered all the papers together and put them in a drawer.  I had to move on; I would trust God, even though I didn’t know how.  I would do what was in front of me to do, I would keep saying I trusted God and see what would happen.  I had come to learn that I could not make my decisions based on how I felt, I would not have gotten up in the mornings most of the time.  I kept reading God’s Word and made choices to obey whether I felt like it or not.  In so many things, I had seen how some way, somehow my feelings would eventually line up with what I was choosing to believe.  I certainly didn’t understand it at the time, but it was God’s grace empowering me to do what I chose to believe.  Philippians 2:13 says for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

     I continued working and learning about God.  I became very restless and wanted to see more of the world God created.  I wanted to learn new things, I wanted to see new things; I wanted to explore.  There was a lady living up stairs from me.  She was a teacher, but had become a flight attendant for one year.  I asked her about it.  She said, “I wanted to travel and this was a way I could do it for a year.”  I thought wow, could I do this.  Would I leave what I went to school to do?  Would I leave what I really loved to do?  I prayed about it.  I talked to this lady that had been discipling me and teaching me about Jesus.

 

     Betty Ann said, “Teresa, you have worked since you were 14, you put yourself through university in 3 years, you have known one man since you were 15, you got married when you were 21 and you were on your own again at 24…..maybe God wants to give you that time to grow and explore that you didn’t have when you were a teenager.”  I trusted Betty Ann.  She knew and loved God and always had peace, even when things did not go her way.

 

     I prayed and asked God.  I went ahead and applied for the job as a flight attendant with Piedmont Airlines.  It had been one year since I had applied when I drove home one day from work, checked my mailbox and there was a letter from the airline.  I couldn’t believe it.   Was it a refusal or an invitation?  Oh I was nervous.  I waited until I got down stairs to my apartment.  I threw all my stuff on the bed, sat down and stared at the envelope.  Oh I wanted this to be an invitation.  I had given up on it actually.  I had called the airline several times and they told me if I had not heard by this time, I would not hear….but here was a letter!

     I opened it slowly, looked inside…..it was inviting me to come to the training!  I couldn’t believe it, but they had told me not to expect anything if I hadn’t heard.  But I had really sensed it was God.  I had read somewhere in the bible that all things were possible with God…..was He wanting to show me more of Himself?  I had to call Betty Ann.  She was so excited for me.

     And here I was, on an airplane in the 2^nd week of my training.  I was going to be a flight attendant.  I was going to see the world, well the United States first.  It might seem so simple, but I had never been anywhere, never had the desire, and thought I had life all figured out….but God said He would take me down a different path.  It was starting and I couldn’t wait!

     Trusting God can be scary, but trusting God is an adventure.  You are not the one controlling everything and that can be the scary part, but I was starting something and I knew I could not turn back.

Scriptures:  Philippians 2:13,  Matthew 19:26