Timing...

It's a word we hear a lot:  Timing is everything.  Time marches on.  It's about time.  The timing of that was amazing.

My husband Brian & I play at the 30A Songwriter Festival every January.  We love the 

timing of this festival because it allows us the opportunity to get out of cold  (and sometimes snowy) Nashville, and head down to the beach.  It's usually a little cold down there too, but we don't care!  This year we played three different shows throughout the weekend festival, and finished up with an incredible "Gospel Round" on Sunday morning.  

After that show, my husband was driving our car back to Nashville to be at an event he had to play at the following day, and I was headed to the airport for a trip to Nicaragua with Food for the Hungry.  We finished our shows, kissed goodbye and we were off.  

A few hours later, I was sitting on the runway about to take off for Nicaragua when a text came through on my phone.  

It was from Brian, and all it said was, 

"Do we have AAA?"  

My heart sank.  There's only one reason my husband would be asking if we had AAA when he was on a long driving trip.  But the plane was literally about to take off, so there wasn't much I could do.  

Hmmm...great timing.  

I quickly wrote him back and told him we did and to call the 800-number on the back of his card, and then for whatever reason, I quickly posted on Facebook asking if anyone happened to know a mechanic in this little tiny town Brian was stuck in in Alabama. 

The very first person to see my post was our friend Paige who immediately wrote back saying,"My dad lives 20 minutes from there, have Brian call him."  Well, that's some pretty amazing timing that she would be the very first person to see it and write back within 20 seconds.  It would get dark soon, and Brian was quite literally in the middle of nowhere with a vehicle that wouldn't crank, so he didn't have many options.  He called Paige's dad, and that was the beginning of the most amazing 36 hours ever.  Obviously, the fact that our car had died is not the fun part of this story, but to say the Lord put "ordinary angels" in Brian's path to help him out through it all would be an understatement.  Paige's parents took such good care of Brian and helped him figure out what to do every 

step of the way...and every single person Brian encountered on this little 

adventure was another opportunity to share his faith.  

But there was one young man that stood out, and he is the reason I'm writing this blog.  

To make a very long story short, the least expensive option to get our non-running car from Opp, Alabama back to Nashville was for Brian to rent a Penske truck with a car hauler on the back and drive it home himself.  Fun, fun.  A few hours into the trip, he pulled over for gas and decided to get something to eat since he was already off the highway.  He saw a Bojangles (a place I would never allow us to eat at, but he was probably doing the happy dance...haha!) so he pulled in, walked inside and ordered some food.  

As he ate, he noticed that he was hearing songs by Third Day, Mandisa & Casting Crowns.  So when he was finished eating, he walked up to the counter and saw a young man wiping some trays.  Brian said, "I like your choice of music.  Is your manager a believer?"  The young man replied, "Yes", then he paused and said, "I used to be a believer too."  "What happened?" Brian asked.  The young man looked at him, then looked back down, wiped another tray and said, "Well, I don't really go to church anymore.  I had some people hurt me and I just haven't wanted to go back."  

Brian thought for a second and then said, "What's your name?"  

"Addison"

Brian put his hand on Addison's shoulder and said, "Addison, let me tell you something...a church is made up of people, and people will let you down. Don't let a few people at a church allow you to give up on God...He hasn't given up on you."  

As Brian was walking out, Addison said, "Thank you sir.  I think I needed to hear that today."

Ok.  Now, I don't know about you, but I can't exactly deny that what happened there that day was God's perfect timing.  The fact that Brian "happened" to be driving through and stopped at that exact restaurant on that Martin Luther King Holiday when not many places were even open.  The fact Addison was working that day.  The fact that there was no one else anywhere in that Bojangles.  And the fact that what Brian said was probably exactly what Addison needed to hear at this point in his life.  

What amazing timing.

Brian got our car back to Nashville and we had a couple of different mechanics look at it to 

assess what was wrong.  Wanna know what it was?  

Our timing chain broke.  

Nope, I'm not making this up. I promise.  Unfortunately, when that happens on the particular car we had, the chain flies up into the engine and basically ruins it, so it wasn't worth fixing and we had to cut our losses and work on finding a new car.  

Love the timing on that too...we were just about to pay it off.

As we were cleaning out our old car, Brian came across 2 things I had in the console.  The first was my journal I keep with me to just scribble notes or thoughts or lyrics on as they come to me; and as he was taking it out, it opened up to a page where I had written down some thoughts & goals for 2015.  The very first thing I wrote that I wanted to focus on this year was, "Trust God's hand & timing."  

Hmmm...  

The other thing he found was a bracelet my sister-in-law had given me for Christmas a few weeks ago.  Engraved into the bracelet, 

it says, "Faith in God requires faith in His timing."

I don't know what it is about this issue of timing right now, but my goodness...for whatever reason, the Lord is sure reminding us to trust Him and trust in His timing.  Faith in God really does mean having faith in His timing.  I don't understand why that happened to our car -- a car we took very good care of, a car that we were about to own free & clear and was now worth nothing.  The timing of that stinks!  

I don't know why Brian had to be stranded, miss an event he was supposed to sing at back in Nashville, and scramble to find some creative ways to get himself and our car home.  

But I do know that the Lord knew right where he was, even when he didn't.  And I do know that the Lord had a reason for all of it, and it was simply our job to trust His timing.  

Faith requires taking a deep breathe in the middle of difficult circumstances and saying, "Lord, I don't understand this, and I don't necessarily like it, but I'm going to trust that You have a plan...and I'm going to trust that You have a reason for this timing."  My pastor used to say, "God will always do the most loving thing."  Now, I know it's easy to look at this situation and say, "How in the world is leaving Brian stranded in the middle of nowhere the most loving thing?"  

Well, it's what it took to get him to Addison.  

And if there's one thing I know, it's that God will go to great lengths to make sure His children know how much they are loved.  So if this whole crazy adventure was so that Brian would have the opportunity to remind a struggling teenager that God hasn't given up on him...then it was all worth it. 

And that's perfect timing.