Inconvenienced?

My Austin family and I were inconvenienced yesterday as we had to stand in a long security line so we could travel aboard a 737 jet, wearing facemasks, lugging around suitcases, sitting in tight seats a couple of hours, only to have to gather our luggage, go through customs, and then lug our luggage around some more to get to our destination in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Bless our hearts!

Please forgive my sarcasm as I endeavor to encourage us today. “Inconvenienced” is a word that we rarely must use, especially when we live in this 21st Century of so many conveniences that make life so easy for us. God has such grand and good plans for our lives. They are loving plans. But those plans aren’t always pain-free and convenient.

Jesus’ birthday celebration was just a couple of days ago. Ta Da and Bada Bing Bada Boom! The story of Mary and Joseph’s excursion to Bethlehem accelerated and in only one chapter of Luke, we see them arriving at the stable where their sweet little holy child was born in a manger. When we look at it that way, we miss the reality of what really took place.

In the middle of trying to deal with being future parents of the Son of God, Mary and Joseph heard that Caesar had issued a census, and everyone had to go back to their ancestral town. Now, let’s put that in perspective. If tomorrow the government made a rule that every single person had to go back to the town they were from at the same time, it would be total chaos. Every plane, train, and automobile would be filled. Every hotel would be overflowing. Every highway packed full. It would be incredibly frustrating and remarkably inconvenient.

Now try navigating that chaos nine months pregnant. Imagine how inconvenient it would be to travel by donkey to another city when you’re ready to give birth at any moment. Then, when Mary gets to Bethlehem, she must deliver her own baby without the support of her mother, a nurse or midwife, in a stable aka cave, surrounded by a bunch of smelly animals.

None of the circumstances around Jesus’ birth were convenient. But they were part of God’s plan. It had been long foretold that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. The inconveniences to get them there were part of a bigger plan for Joseph and Mary, one that was better than they could have ever dreamed. They trusted God through their discomfort and fear.

Fast forward to today and it begs us to wonder if God in His foresight and wisdom sets up times like this for us to understand that He purposely uses inconveniences to prove that it is not us in control, but He is the Master Controller. Perhaps, during the holidays, you’ve been inconvenienced with a house full of guests, and you are still having to cater to their every whim. Perhaps you are wishing for a 10-minute nap, but you are inconvenienced by a sleeping baby that someone put on your bed. Perhaps you were inconvenienced and had to travel to get to your family’s home.

Even today, we can settle the score with God. We seek Him for a way out or a way in but His plans for our lives include inconveniences. We can trust most things God does in our lives are because He knows best. He might use some inconveniences to get us where we need to be, but He is always working for our good and working out His purposes in our lives.

If Mary and Joseph succeeded in their journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem to Egypt and back to Nazareth because of God’s grandiose “inconvenient” ideas, then we can place our trust in Him with our inconveniences. Just maybe – each inconvenience is God’s convenient way of proving His faithfulness and love for us. In the grand scheme of things – why not trust Him for the best outcome?

“All things (even the inconvenient things) work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purposes.” Romans 8:28