Willing to Move

When I heard that the Big Boss was coming, which was a couple of weeks before she was due to arrive, I asked God to delay her so that she and I wouldn’t be in Jakarta at the same time.

Seriously, I did.  I prayed that she wouldn’t arrive until I wasn’t around.  As I said, I already had an inkling that being around her may be a bit of a challenge for me, so I prayed for her delay because I didn’t imagine that she and I being in the same house would end well.

On top of that, her coming while I was around would be a hassle for me because it meant that I would have to move out of “my” room, which is really her room when she’s in Jakarta, and share a room with someone for the duration of her visit, however long that would be.  I wasn’t looking forward to that for a couple of reasons.  First off, I can vouch for the (relative) cleanliness of my space but I can’t vouch for the cleanliness of anyone else’s space.  Also, the privacy that I value so highly would be out the door.

To be perfectly honest, I was more concerned about the room-sharing part of things than about getting into any fracas with her because I knew that I could lose myself in work and politely ignore her but I couldn’t ignore lack of privacy.  Still, I wrapped my mind around the implications of her coming and told myself that I had no choice, I had to adjust.  So I accepted the upcoming changes and prepared myself for them.

A few days before she was due to arrive, I packed my stuff, leaving out only the things I would need for the next couple of days.  On the day that she was supposed to arrive, I took a few minutes to move my things into the room that I would be sharing.  I dumped my stuff, shifted around some mattresses, made the bed I had decided to use, and went back to work.  This was all while I ignored the people who were running around trying to sort out the Big Boss’s airline ticket.  I can honestly say that I moved to that room with no compunction in my heart, despite her behaviour just a couple of hours before that.  I did it willingly.

I think that my willingness to move without question paid off big time.  It turned out that I didn’t have to share after all.  Here’s how come.

She was due to arrive on a Tuesday night, which was the day all the craziness was unfolding, and also the day that I moved my things to the shared room.  I was due to leave Indonesia for a visa run and my annual 2-week vacation on the following Sunday .  This meant that she and I would have overlapped for basically 4 days, give or take a few hours.  However, at some point in the running around, it was apparently decided that the Big Boss wouldn’t come to Jakarta until the following Tuesday, 2 days after I would have already left.

Hallelujah!

People, I am here to tell you, if you didn’t already know, that God answers prayers.  No joke.  He absolutely does.  There are many times when He doesn’t answer in the way that we want or expect.  There are times when He answers without delay.  And there are times when He answers after we’ve forgotten that we even asked.  This was 1 of those times.

I sincerely believe that He answered this particular prayer because of my attitude of willingness to move and to be uncomfortable for a time, without whining about it.  I didn’t take that attitude to get that reward; in fact, I had put my request from my mind and actually forgot about it until I heard that her arrival was delayed.  The only reason that I was able to have that attitude is because He has been growing me up so much over the past several months.

All afternoon and evening, I awaited her arrival because no-one had informed me that she was delayed by a week.  All afternoon and evening, I didn’t think about her coming; I just did my work.  A little before I called it quits for the night, I asked what time she was expected and that was when I knew that my prayer had been answered.  I moved my things back to “my” room and thanked God for always being so good to me.  The mess that she had created had become my blessing, because it meant that I would spend the few days before I left for my vacation in the relative comfort of “my” room.

A couple of days later, I heard that her arrival date had shifted yet again; she would arrive late the Saturday night before I left for my vacation on Sunday morning.  This meant that I still had to move to another room but I didn’t have to share because the other person who was occupying the room was away on her days off.   I was already packed and all I had to do was shift my stuff again and spend 1 night in another room before spending 2 weeks living in the virtual lap of luxury.  I still say I came out ahead.

Thank you, Jesus, for answering my prayer.