Do you remember “Elastigirl” from Pixar’s movie, The Incredibles? She was incredible because she could take whatever the villains threw at her. She was flexible, she was elastic, and she was so “go-with-the-flow” that she was practically a stream. Now picture me, next to Elastigirl. Take a few moments to fine-tune that image into focus. Got it? Great, now erase that image from your brain because I have a confession to make: I am Elastigirl’s antithesis. It’s true! The Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) defines flexibility as “not setting my affections on ideas or plans which could be changed by God or others.” Somehow, though, I remain as flexible as a California Redwood tree, and I resemble an icicle more than I do a flowing creek.
With this in mind, you will laugh a long, sinister, evil, “you-knew-you-had-it-coming-to-you” kind of laugh when you hear what happened on Friday, August 7th around noon. I got a voicemail from the dean of my college—which is generally not a good sign since deans don’t seem to have a habit of calling long distance to “chat.” Sure enough, when Lauren called him back, she learned that a combination of events had conspired to shut down the music program. Immediately. (In case you were wondering—as I was—immediately somehow means right now, not five years from now.) Thus, 1 ½ years, thousands of dollars, and who-knows-how-many all-nighters were suddenly thrown into limbo. If I did not make this perfectly clear to you in the beginning, let me reiterate: I HATE LIMBO! And I had a jumbo-size all-you-can-eat buffet of limbo. After calling the director of the music program to straighten this whole mess out immediately (in this case immediately has a time limit of two seconds) and discovering to my chagrin that he was not in, I did what any self-respecting, red-blooded girl would do (at least one who is not related to Elastigirl): I cried. Then I found, claimed, and meditated intently on Proverbs 16:9 which says, “A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.” All evening I did that. All Saturday, I continued. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday…this was getting to be too much! I wondered if the director had proven Magellan wrong, discovering that the earth is indeed flat, because I was sure that he had fallen off the edge.
It was tempting to take matters into my own hands as I worried and agonized over my degree. I was so sure that this degree was what God wanted me to do! I still felt that it was, with no apprehension ever creeping in until this armed robber in the night came in and walloped me over the head. With the semester starting on August 20, time was fast running out, and the dean of the college, the director of the music program, and the director of an entirely separate music program needed to get togethe
r and make some decisions.
Then on Tuesday and Wednesday, God brought everything together. He caught the music director, revived him, and placed him back on the flat plane of the earth (with access to a phone, no less!). He brought all three men together for a meeting. Moreover, he gave the director compassion to agree to stay on until Lauren and I finished our degree. All is as if nothing ever happened, so to speak. Except me. I, you see, look much like that favorite stretchy shirt you own that has been worn by a slightly bigger person, emerging saggy, wrinkled, threadbare, and altogether stretched beyond its limits. I was stretched beyond my limits, you see, but I was not stretched beyond God’s limits—He had everything in control all the time.
I am learning, therefore, ever so slowly and feebly to be an Elastigirl, or a trampoline, or a shirt, or whichever confused stretchy analogy one can think of. Ultimately, I am learning to rest in God. I am internalizing the words of Colossians 3:2, which say, “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” Such a way of life is truly a blessing. It is less stressful, more faith growing, and much better for my health. Nevertheless, please, please don’t cancel something with me last minute. I’m not sure I could take that just yet!
With this in mind, you will laugh a long, sinister, evil, “you-knew-you-had-it-coming-to-you” kind of laugh when you hear what happened on Friday, August 7th around noon. I got a voicemail from the dean of my college—which is generally not a good sign since deans don’t seem to have a habit of calling long distance to “chat.” Sure enough, when Lauren called him back, she learned that a combination of events had conspired to shut down the music program. Immediately. (In case you were wondering—as I was—immediately somehow means right now, not five years from now.) Thus, 1 ½ years, thousands of dollars, and who-knows-how-many all-nighters were suddenly thrown into limbo. If I did not make this perfectly clear to you in the beginning, let me reiterate: I HATE LIMBO! And I had a jumbo-size all-you-can-eat buffet of limbo. After calling the director of the music program to straighten this whole mess out immediately (in this case immediately has a time limit of two seconds) and discovering to my chagrin that he was not in, I did what any self-respecting, red-blooded girl would do (at least one who is not related to Elastigirl): I cried. Then I found, claimed, and meditated intently on Proverbs 16:9 which says, “A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.” All evening I did that. All Saturday, I continued. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday…this was getting to be too much! I wondered if the director had proven Magellan wrong, discovering that the earth is indeed flat, because I was sure that he had fallen off the edge.
It was tempting to take matters into my own hands as I worried and agonized over my degree. I was so sure that this degree was what God wanted me to do! I still felt that it was, with no apprehension ever creeping in until this armed robber in the night came in and walloped me over the head. With the semester starting on August 20, time was fast running out, and the dean of the college, the director of the music program, and the director of an entirely separate music program needed to get togethe
r and make some decisions.Then on Tuesday and Wednesday, God brought everything together. He caught the music director, revived him, and placed him back on the flat plane of the earth (with access to a phone, no less!). He brought all three men together for a meeting. Moreover, he gave the director compassion to agree to stay on until Lauren and I finished our degree. All is as if nothing ever happened, so to speak. Except me. I, you see, look much like that favorite stretchy shirt you own that has been worn by a slightly bigger person, emerging saggy, wrinkled, threadbare, and altogether stretched beyond its limits. I was stretched beyond my limits, you see, but I was not stretched beyond God’s limits—He had everything in control all the time.
I am learning, therefore, ever so slowly and feebly to be an Elastigirl, or a trampoline, or a shirt, or whichever confused stretchy analogy one can think of. Ultimately, I am learning to rest in God. I am internalizing the words of Colossians 3:2, which say, “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” Such a way of life is truly a blessing. It is less stressful, more faith growing, and much better for my health. Nevertheless, please, please don’t cancel something with me last minute. I’m not sure I could take that just yet!
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Hi Mikaela,
ReplyDeleteThanks for another great post! I appreciated your honesty, humility and humor (though I'm sure a lot of this was in no wise funny at the time). And, I'm so glad everything worked out in regard to yours and Lauren's degrees.
Flexibility and resting in the Lord are very good lessons to learn and I believe ones I am getting a taste of now, with plans for Uganda, which are more liquid than solid at this point. :) Though I feel so much lies in the hands of people right now, ultimately it is all in God's hands.
Thanks for the good reminders!