It’s All Good / Patti Lamb

Cling to God when life’s disappointments come your way

“It’s just not the way I thought this would go,” I told my sister on the phone, my jaw clenched with anger.

We were all packed up to move, with a deposit on a new place and a tentative date scheduled with movers. We were excited to sell to our perspective buyers, who even walked through our home and asked if they could purchase certain furnishings since we planned to downsize.

Then we found out—in a most unexpected way—that the couple decided to bail on our deal and buy another house. My husband was accidentally copied on a group text to their house inspector, the same man who had inspected our home weeks ago for this couple, saying our deal “fell through,” and they found another place. We didn’t even get a phone call.

“I prayed so hard,” I said to my sister, “to sell the house and get settled in a new space as the new school year began, and then this happened.” I felt so naïve and angry. The contents of our entire household were packed up, except for those items this couple asked to purchase at closing. I had even written down all the paint colors so the new owners could touch up the walls where we had removed artwork because they said they loved the paint color choices.

I was seething for at least a week. I had very unholy thoughts about toilet papering their new residence, or drawing a devil with a pitchfork on their new driveway with neon sidewalk chalk. (Sorry, friends, but I’m human and I felt betrayed.) I probably generated enough angst that week to power a small town.

And then I remembered the verses my dad shared with me years ago from a song called “O Breathe on Me, O Breath of God.” It was at a time when I was also quite distraught.

The third verse of the song contains these lyrics:

“O breathe on me, O breath of God,
My will to yours incline,
Until this selfish part of me
Glows with your fire divine.”

Those words reminded me that I’ll only find peace when I align my will with God’s. Instead of praying and begging for my will, I prayed to accept God’s will “on Earth as it is in heaven.”

I think the prayer I said that night went something like this: “God, I am so disappointed and angry, but I trust you. I love you and I need your guidance. I know that you are good—all the time—and I’m giving this to you. You made the universe out of nothing. You can do anything, and I know you’re leading me to what’s best out of your graciousness. Squelch this anger in my heart. Take my hand, and I’ll try to go along with less kicking and screaming.”

And with that, I started unpacking boxes.

I feel foolish that my reaction to this minor setback was so dramatic. There are much bigger things to which I should be giving my mental energy and my time. But this incident reminded me to cling to God, and to pray more about fulfilling his will. This is what I must remind myself when life throws curve balls in the form of disappointments, obstacles and misfortunes.

“Prayer is not an argument with God to persuade him to move things our way,” wrote evangelist Leonard Ravenhill, “but an exercise by which we are enabled by his Spirit to move ourselves his way.”
 

(Patti Lamb, a member of St. Susanna Parish in Plainfield, is a regular columnist for The Criterion.) †