Narrowly & theatrically timed

Last week I witnessed an amazing feat.  Still today I shake my head to recount how close I came to performing a new theater script without any semblance of rehearsal.  Our group had met all kinds of complications.  We encountered a medical emergency, a legal emergency, and somehow a variety of non-emergencies that kept disallowing all 3 of us to meet.  The circumstances didn’t even make sense sometimes, yet they kept happening.  Put it all together, and we were in a tight spot.  Actually I was in a tight spot.  My fellow actresses had been performing this script for lots of years, and they knew every inch of it very well.  I was the only newbie.  I felt certain all along that the Lord would provide, but anxiety crept in as I didn’t know how He would provide.  If all my lines fell perfectly in place, it would be by His provision.  If I fell on my face and loused up everything, I felt the Lord would somehow use that for His glory as well.  Still I read the Bible because I wanted to hear the Lord's voice and sit in His company.  Certain emails seemed so wonderfully comforting and perfectly tailored for my situation.  And I kept hearing encouraging songs on KLOVE that spoke into my circumstances.  Each time my heart raced in panic, the Lord gave me new calm, and I loved many family and friends for praying.  Finally our days were running out.  Weeks of interferences had left us with only a narrow window of possibility.  It was less than 24 hours before our performances, and amazingly all 3 of us could rehearse.  Such timeframe could appear last-minute to us humans, but if God put our rehearsal on His calendar for that Thursday afternoon, then it wasn’t last-minute at all.  And when our director told me we could finally rehearse, I sat motionless for a while.  I held utmost amazement for the Lord because only He had known the depth of my anxiety, and only He could make possible what had been impossible for weeks.  To say I was immensely thankful would be an understatement.  Actually I need to underscore the word immensely and draw it in bright colors with curlicues and stars and add the shiniest glitter on top.  The message in our play had touched on character traits and obedience, and here I was in the middle of living out my obedience to the Lord.  Just because the winds blow strong in life doesn’t mean I automatically abandon ship.  Right there in my anguish, the Lord swooped in for the rescue.  As He says in Matthew 28:20, He is with us always.  And that notion of falling on my face did come true, for in my desperation, He led me wonderfully to fall into prayer.