God Works In Mysterious Ways or Mischievous Ways?

Since the time spent at the William and Catherine Booth College I have often used spoke of God working in mischievous ways rather than in mysterious ways. In doing so, I am using mischievous in the positive humorous manner.

To say “mysterious ways” leaves matters, at least from my perspective, in the ethereal realm of the incomprehensible never never land. It says that I cannot understand how and the timing of God’s work, and I should not worry about understanding His providence.

As I look back, I can only smile at the timing of various moments and events in my life, how things flowed together, sometimes slowly and gently, and sometimes more tumultuously. It is not uncommon that only by looking back that I can see how the various elements, with me being unaware, were coming together into a life changing or key life moment. There is a sense of humor in the timing and flow, in how through divine providence God was at work moving me forward while I was unaware of the surprise that He was about to spring. Following are just three of a host of examples from which I could pull.

1. I smile when I recall a vacation that took us through Iowa City, and the positive comments we made about the area. I recall driving by the education building and us commenting upon its design and the appearance of the heart of the campus and the downtown. Little did we know that three years later that Evie would have an office in that same building and be receiving $14,500 per year scholarship from the university.

2. I smile that we took a vacation that brought us into the Washington area and comments that Washington would be a lovely city in which to live. Two years later we were living in the Washington area.

3. I smile on how Evie and I started dating. Evie was still awake on the bus as we returned from a band trip and we talked for hours. I had planned on asking another young lady out to the Junior-Senior show but during the talk ended up asking Evie instead. I smile that during that same Junior-Senior, over dinner our waitress at the Beaumont Inn told Ken, my roommate and his date Pauline that Evie and I were going to get married. I smile that we dated face to face only for about five or six weeks before I asked her to marry me. That both sets of parents recognized I would propose and Evie would accept before Evie and I recognized it ourselves. That when Evie first saw me for the first time on the bus going to the Lexington Corps that she said to herself that she was going to marry me (I was sitting there talking with Liz my girlfriend of that point). That our plans were to marry in June 1981 but both sets of parents responded in the same manner, why were we waiting when we should get married June 1979. All these years later, I still adore the young lady who happened to be the only woman on the bus who was not asleep…God does work in mischievous ways.