God Is in Control

     God is in control. This is a basic truth of the Christian faith, and yet I so easily forget it. I don't forget it mentally. I just don't always live like I believe it. Over the past couple of weeks, I had been extremely frustrated by a situation in a particular school district. There is a church that has seven leaders ready and waiting to start a Crossroads Kids Club in their community. We were rejected by one principal and then shut out by another one as well. I was particularly frustrated with the situation because this is a school district that has never rejected a Crossroads Kids Club in ten years, and we have six clubs already meeting in six schools in this same district. The point is that it was not a matter of district policy or of not having a church ready to lead. The whole situation just didn't make sense to me.
     God is closing these doors because he has something else for you, I assured the associate pastor who was leading the Crossroads team. The trouble was that I really only half believed that. (Mostly I was just saying it to sound more spiritual.) Then we got a meeting with the principal of a third school in the neighborhood last Thursday. Walking in to that meeting I was not sure what to expect.
     Almost immediately, the principal shared that she was a follower of Jesus. She told us what her home church was, and in the course of the conversation she shared that she had grown up as a missionary kid. In any case, she was absolutely delighted to work with the church and to have a Crossroads Kids Club start there. We could tell that she had a genuine love and concern for the students in her building, and she shared some of the incredible obstacles the children routinely face—parents in jail, parents being deported, etc. The bottom line: God reminded me that he really is in control. This church and I had our plans, but God had other plans. He closed the door to two other schools to lead us to this one where we were not thinking of going. I left that meeting so encouraged and I am rejoicing that his ways are so much better than ours!