So this morning I wake up to my cousin's voice saying "Elisa, you overslept, it's 6:20 already..." I say "Oh shoot!" and scramble out of bed and bolt to the bathroom, and get ready in a 3 or 4 minute flurry of activity. You see, Luanda traffic is so ridiculously bad that if I don't leave by 6:00 at the latest, I'll be over an hour, perhaps even two hours late to work. Nope I'm not exaggerating:
There are some areas of the city where you literally PARK in the middle of your commute because traffic is JUST NOT MOVING AT ALL...
Anyhow, so there I was, reaching for my backpack to jet out the door when my eye catches my Bible, sitting pretty, on the bedside table. I mutter a quick prayer saying "I'm so sorry Lord, I'll read the Bible when I get to the office (on biblegateway.com, of course :D)" which is what I used to do when I didn't get to do my morning devotion back in my university days...
But today, for some reason, I felt something pulling at me to put my backpack down and do my devotion. Right then. No matter how late I was. I wrestled with the thought for a few seconds, decided to walk out, and then changed my mind and went back to the room and did what I had to do. All the while knowing, just KNOWING I wasn't gonna make it to the office before 10 am since devotion would probably take at least 15 minutes, and that makes a WORLD of a difference in the level of traffic jams at that time of the day.
Fast forward to the end of my devotion, I get up, with less of a spring in my step, to leave. All of a sudden my cousin peeks out of his room and says "Elisa, I'm sorry, I saw the wrong time on my phone. It was actually 5:20 when I woke you up... so you're not running late at all..." and he closes his door and goes back to sleep. I just stood there and blinked. And then it dawned on me, and I started laughing... Good one Lord... Way to test my priorities...
Turns out that in my haste, I didn't even take the time to look at the clock, the phone, my watch, anything... I assumed I hadn't heard the alarm (it happens to me quite often...), but I was actually not late at all. in fact, I still had time to grab some dumplings (yum!) and pineapple juice for breakfast before I left. I reached the bus stop just in time for my bus and made it to work on time.
God was trying to test me to see if I would place Him above my daily concerns. I'm glad I passed this test... but I'm still a little perturbed that I was THISCLOSE to not passing. I ALMOST left. I would've felt pretty bad when I eventually realized that I was really early and had rejected the little voice telling me to stay and pray. But I learned my lesson. May the Lord help us all to ALWAYS put Him in first place.
