"They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are
steadfast, trusting in the LORD." Psalm 112:7
(NIV)
Trusting God when good news arrives? No problem. I
see
His hand at work, His unconditional love in action and gratitude fills my
heart.
But when bad news comes knocking, my
gratitude
can easily turn into attitude.
After a busy morning speaking at a weekend women's
conference, I made my way back to the book table, glad to find two kind
souls
willing to handle all the details while I signed books.
When lunchtime arrived and the book table was quickly
abandoned in favor of chicken salad and fudge brownies, one of my helpers
touched my shoulder.
"Liz?" Her anguished expression should have warned
me. "I
don't know how to tell you this, but ... I lost your bank
bag."
My heart sank. "With all the money in
it?"
She nodded, chin trembling. "I carried it with me
into
the ladies' room for safekeeping. When I put it down to wash my hands, I
started
talking to someone, then forgot what I was doing and left without the bag."
Her
voice was strained to the breaking point. "I ran back in, but it was gone.
I'm
so sorry, Liz ..."
My first instinct? (Get ready:
this
is ugly.) I wanted to stomp my foot and say, "That was a lot of money!
How
could you be so careless?"
By God's grace, I didn't go there. The woman simply
had
made a mistake. Hadn't I made one or two (or 10 or 20)
myself?
My second instinct was to flip my hand as if it
didn't
matter and say, "Whatever." I couldn't go that route, either. We were both
concerned, and for good reason; it was foolish to pretend
otherwise.
So, I took a deep breath, prayed for God's peace,
then
said, "Let's trust the Lord on this one and not worry about the money."
Wait. Not worry about money, lots of which needed to go back to my
publisher
to pay for those sold books?! Clearly that easygoing attitude didn't
come
from me.
God alone managed to override the unkind words I
might
have said. He also tempered my anxious thoughts and toned down my conflicted
emotions. The only thing on my mind at that moment was helping ease the
woman's
obvious distress.
Trust me, this was not Liz being
a
good girl. This was God being a great
God.
With an utter sense of peace, I hugged her, then
whispered, "Let it go." I felt her slowly relax. Then I surprised us both by
announcing, "I believe the bag will turn up. How about we go to lunch and
let
God take care of things?"
Not worry? Not fret? Not
obsess? So not my style. But that Saturday, by the power of His Spirit,
I
really did trust God with my whole heart. In fact, I couldn't wait to see
what
He might do to solve our problem.
Thirty minutes later the woman in charge came running
up
to our lunch table, her face shining. "We found your bank bag! Someone left
it
in the sanctuary."
Yes. I smiled broadly.
Someone did.
Was I grateful to have the money back? Sure. But the
lessons I learned about letting go and trusting God were far more
valuable.
On the drive home I thanked Him over and over for
stilling my tongue and calming my spirit. For keeping me from wounding a
sister
in Christ. For nudging whoever picked up the bag to do the right thing and
leave
it where it might be found. For changing my negative attitude into heartfelt
gratitude.
Heavenly Father, even bad news is
bearable with You by my side. When I'm tempted to worry, fret or obsess,
remind
me to pray, trust and let go. In Jesus' Name,
Amen.
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