That's divine intervention!

If a friend didn't unwittingly send this message to me this morning, I'd have missed out on God's awesome care for me and my concerns. What a shame! And how ashamed I am when I realize how my focus on work has crowded out my acknowledgement of God's gracious presence in my life! God, I ask for forgiveness.

This whole thing started on Friday. I was totally swamped with work and client emails/calls. I logged overtime hours on a Friday night but that wasn't enough. I was forced to take my work home. Saturday was a tiring day of packing and moving out from my Paranaque residence to my new place in Ortigas. Too tired from the packing then unpacking, I wasn't even able to finish half of my workload. After service yesterday, I got right back to working and finished the translation part of the code plan just before dinner. I resumed at 9pm after dinner and a short break.

By 10PM (with less than 25% of sheets organized into nets), I was feeling hopeless and telling friends that I needed divine intervention if I was to submit the translated and organized code plan before lunch today. At 11PM, I decided to give up. There was no way I'd finish my work before Monday lunch so I might as well get some much-needed rest. I crawled into bed and talked to God about all my worries, about how hopeless and joyless I was. I can't say I slept well because I had peace knowing that God would help. I slept with a fatalistic and resigned outlook to what what I perceived to be inescapable criticism from my boss and DP department.

I was on autopilot this morning, rushing through the morning routine while making mental post-its for all my work today in my consciousness. I got to the office, skipped my morning tea ritual, flipped my PC on and began organizing codes like my life depended on it. In a way, it did. 20 minutes of insanity, my boss called and told me to send it to him. I apologized and said I needed more time to organize the codes. And here's the divine intervention part: My boss said that organization into nets was no longer needed! How's that for God helping me out with work?

But I didn't even pause to really let that sink in. I breathed a single line of not-that-heartfelt thanks, told aforementioned friend and went right on with other pending tasks! My friend's reply was such a wake-up call for me. "That's divine intervention." Truly it was and how ungrateful I was for it. I spent a couple of minutes in our pantry talking to God about that.

But oh how gracious is my King! I go forth this week with a renewed sense of the God who is truly with me, who cares and who corrects. I pray my focus on work does not overwrite my praise and when it does, I pray for grace to see and turn back.