The King Maker moves and takes rulers from their thrones. He breathes and presidents rise to power. By His hands judges are stripped from their office. The King Maker, Master Strategist, Sovereign Architect of History and the Future, and Author of Reality shapes our world according to His will and brings His plans into motion with impossible precision all the while accounting for and allowing the free will and independence of thought He endowed upon man. What is more incredible, a God who forces all things to His will without input or interaction, or a God who sovereignly writes the chapters of tomorrow to accomplish all He sets out to accomplish exactly as He plans it all by the vehicle of man’s free will? I find the latter so much more compelling. There is such freedom in knowing that my Father not only plans and ordains those decisions, but He responds and writes history based on the right He gave me to make them.
On this day, nearly three decades ago, a young mother went into labor. Tucked away in the Philippine jungle, eight hours by car from the hospital, she wasn’t expecting her child for another three and a half weeks. Fortunately, she lived on an aviation base for a mission organization. She quickly called her husband and a neighbor and within minutes, the three of them along with a pilot, boarded a small plane and took off for the metropolis of Manila.
Laying in a hospital bed after surgery, a man stared at the ceiling and pleaded with God. He was alone and the nurses weren’t attending him. In his excruciating pain, he begged God to send his wife to stand by his side. Yet how could she arrive here? She had no idea concerning his plight and was hours away. This prayer was absurd. Within a moment of uttering those words, and as he slumped back into the mattress defeated, she walked through the door. In his astonishment and shock he demanded to know why she was there. She smiled and told him about their pregnant neighbor who had gone into labor hours earlier. She, being a nurse, had agreed to accompany her friend on the plane in case she had to deliver the baby in the air.
Kelly cared for her husband. A premature birth answered his prayers. A pilot and plane, prepped and ready, fulfilled the will of God. A mother and her son were tools in hand of The Almighty.
On this day, decades later, that child is now a man. He was set to go before a judge to settle the most tumultuous years of his life. God had walked with him down this path and the road was beginning to clear. Yet, God moved again. This time He shook the judicial power of an entire country to change the trajectory of that child’s life. The judge stepped down from office and retired months before his term was complete. Without a replacement judge, all cases were put on hold for months.
In confusion I asked God, “Did I miss something? Am I supposed to act? What do you desire of me? Was I wrong?”
In grace and patience my Father took me back beyond the fringes of my own life and walked me through history. He showed me the castles of sand built by men. He showed me the waves that strike them and wash them away. Each stands for but moments before falling and melting into the motion of time. This is the hand of God. The tides move by His command.
As He brought me mercifully to understand that this was within His will, I knelt before my Maker and shouted His name, “Father, you moved. I do not understand why and I will never in this life hear the stories of the lives impacted by such an act. I will never comprehend the gift You have given me to face trial on behalf of the countless others so that You could reshape their lives. I will never grasp the measure by which You count it all an overwhelming success. Yet, because on this day, I know You, because I know Your hand has moved, because You acted, because You shook the authorities of this nation, and because it was all by Your will and within Your masterful plan, I will celebrate. I will rejoice.”
“You have gifted me with the right to suffer on behalf of others. It is my honor to praise You!”
For it has been granted to me that for the sake of Christ I should not only believe in Him but also suffer for His sake.