With me in Adversity, With me in Prosperity

It's going to take me awhile to get to my point, so bear with me.

On Friday, a good friend from my high school days visited. We had plans to go kayaking. I was looking forward to this all week. When she arrived, we checked the hour-by-hour weather forecast, and found a window during which the weather should have been fine for kayaking in Middle River. We left my house and I promptly took a wrong exit and got stuck in commuter traffic. We arrived at the state park later than expected, paid the entrance fee, and parked our car. At that very moment, a deluge of rain, followed by loud thunder, began. We sat for awhile hoping it would subside, but it didn't. We left (and no, the park ranger would not refund my entrance fee).

Driving home, the weather began to clear up. By the time we returned home, the weather was very nice. We didn't want to drive back at rush hour back to the park (and pay again!) so we looked for a place to kayak locally. The only place was Gunpowder Creek, which I had seen from the trail next to it but had never kayaked.

At 6:30 pm on an overcast evening, we put in our kayaks at Monkton. We finished about an hour and a half later in Sparks.

It was the ride of our lives. It turns out that the deluge of rain caused amazing rapid conditions, but not unsafe conditions. We were the only people (fools?) on the Gunpowder. Never having navigated it before, we had no idea what was around each bend in the Creek. We might never get a ride like that again. The conditions were perfect for an amazing, unforgettable journey.

This weekend, the message at Nativity was about (Old Testament) Joseph and how he always trusted that God was with him, even when things were apparently not going well for him. Betrayed by family, sold into slavery, imprisoned, and accused of sin he did not commit, Joseph always had God with him. And, at the end of the story, we see God had a plan throughout the adversity for Joseph to be perfectly placed for a greater good. Check it out-read Genesis 35-47.

I'm not Joseph and his story was more intense and more intentioned for global good than my recreational jaunt this weekend. But it struck me as coincidental. Or not.

We planned a trip. I got lost. We arrived at a place at exactly the wrong time. We left just in time to miss the good weather. We didn't get our money back, and were not willing to suffer traffic or further money loss to go back when the weather improved. We found another place to kayak (which scared us a bit since we are not whitewater kayakers and didn't know the body of water) that was perfectly positioned, because of the previous downpour, to give us the kayak ride of our life. My friend and I talk about faith often, and on this trip down the Creek, we talked about God and silently witnessed his creation.

We thought God wasn't with us early in the day, and we couldn't figure out why he seemingly didn't want us to kayak at the scheduled place and time. But he was with us. He gave us the gift of an unforgettable journey.

Not just on the kayak. But in life. Sometimes he has a different plan. And it's always a better plan.