Finding God in the Ordinary

The GEMS theme this year is "Feed the Fire," and part of the theme materials is the acronym PASSION. I think GEMS likes acronyms. I can't remember what all the letters of PASSION stand for, but the O refers to seeing God in the ordinary occurrences of life. Tuesday morning He was working hard in the mundane details of my life.

Tuesdays I have to be at work at 7 am, which means out the door by 6. Monday was a holiday, which meant no work, and Monday night I set my alarms as if the next day, the first day of my work week, was Monday, which means I was aiming to get out the door by 6:45. I fell asleep without realizing my mistake. I woke up when my first alarm went off--a major feat in itself--and looked at the time: 6:00 am. Suddenly the thought hit me: I'm supposed to be headed out the door! I can only credit that reminder to God; how else would I have randomly remembered what I had forgotten before? I threw on a sweatshirt and sweats and ran out the door. I turned on my car, and a light on my dashboard popped up: gas light! The truth is I knew I would need gas. I had been out Monday night, but decided to skip the line at the gas station and leave a couple extra minutes to pump in the morning. Unfortunately, I didn't really have those extra minutes, but I needed to stop anyway. However the gas light in itself was a God-thing too, I believe. Otherwise I would have tried to make it to work, and the light would have blinked on down the road, where I would have ended up paying more for gas and been at a higher stress level. At the station I had just enough time to type out ONE text to a friend about how freakishly crappy my morning was going. In the time it took me to type that one text, my gas tank had filled--all the way!! What?? By 6:15 I was on the road for real, and I was stressing. But I ended up making it with minutes to spare. God was certainly working in the ordinary that morning. Praise be to God for his unfailing compassion; his mercies are new every morning.