Last week, Elaine and I traveled to Orlando FL, to help clean out my mother in law's apartment. Her Dementia had gotten bad enough that the apartment complex asked her to leave. My wife was able to find a group home for her through "A Place for Mom" and the internet and reviews of various places like this. We have been blessed that God was able to help us in this process, and the folks who run the home she is now in are gracious and active church people who understand both loving people as Jesus loved us, and about the hectic schedules that pastors often get involved in.
This trip to Florida was one set of competing emotions and experiences, from Madness to Miracles and back again, several times. I'll try to share the story with you, because I think we can all learn that in the chaos there is opportunity for God to be at work and in the stress a way to learn to depend even more on God's help. It's just so unusual to have all of it get wrapped up in a few short days, as we did last week. The chaos and darkness of Genesis one comes to mind, and the Holy Spirit moved across the darkness and brought forth light, and life and order.
The plane was late getting into Baltimore, so it was late leaving Baltimore. When we landed in Orlando and went to get our luggage, we learned it hadn't made the plane. No luggage, no work clothes, no pajamas, you can imagine what was going through our heads at that point. Fortunately we had both packed contact solutions for our eyes and our medication, so we wouldn't freak out the next day. I didn't know about the luggage thing for a while I was busy negotiating the rental car. I had reserved an SUV, thinking we would need to carry loads to the dumpster or the Salvation Army or both. Well the reservation last week, was messed up and the only thing they could rent us at the time we were there was a huge Suburban. I could hardly get in and out, the drop down was pretty difficult and when we went to take mother in law out to dinner, we could hardly get her in the vehicle.
Back to the luggage, the airlines promised delivery of our stuff to the hotel, but not right away. Well it turns out there were 8 other flights from Baltimore to Orlando and it missed them too. We got our bags mid morning the next day. So after seeing the disaster of our work, we hit the mall for sales to find the clothes we needed to get us through the next day. January sales can be great, if you know how to shop in an emergency.
That was madness, the miracle appeared the next day. One of the men in our church, has family property in Florida and was thinking he could arrange his trip down there to coincide with our work and offered to help us. He appeared on Tuesday, like a legion of angels coming to the rescue. We could not have done it without his help. He had a pick up truck to carry stuff to the dumpster and the Salvation Army, he had a calming demeanor to help with the emotional struggle of going through the family material and making difficult choices. And we laughed, and had great meals together, and we absolutely could not have done it without him. I thoroughly embarrassed him in church Sunday, but we were extremely grateful indeed.
Madness next day, the charity that offered to pick up our stuff, has a strange way of doing things, or maybe it's just crazy laws in Florida. The truck showed up on Wednesday instead of Thursday, which threw us off on one point, but also saved us with time for recovery. They could only take the few items I mentioned on the phone from Maryland, they could not or would not do a clean out of an apartment as they had promised, only items I could think to mention the week earlier could actually be picked up. So we were left with so much stuff. The driver suggested we call college hunks, hauling junk. They wanted way too much money and weren't available on a moment's notice. The next line down on Google was Junk Angels, and they sure were. Yes we can help, yes we know where you are, yes, we can come this morning. Two handsome and very courteous guys showed up and even helped us carry some things out to our truck for delivery elsewhere.
Madness and miracles yet again. The charity of the wednesday pick recommended we try again and name the right items this time. Well I did, when we called to confirm the morning pick up, the best they could do was afternoon, after our plane left. And we can't take anything made of particle board, apparently a Florida state law. So we were once again stuck with time running out fast. So I called Junk Angels again, pleading with them to forgive us for calling back, "No Problem, my truck is around the corner from you now, is ten minutes soon enough?" Miracles happen, I tell you, not when we expect it but they do happen. So by noon on the last day, the apartment was empty, cleaned up and we were ready to have lunch with mother in law and fly back to Maryland, mission accomplished!
So I learned again, that we serve an AWESOME God! The madness was covered by miracles. I never would have thought to pray for a helper from our church in Maryland to be available in Florida, I made arrangements as best as I knew how, that didn't work out so well, and God just smiles and says, you have got to trust me, come on get out of the boat, try walking on water, you can do it!
So we say Praise the Lord, thank you all for the many prayers that were made on our behalf, that made the miracles in the middle of madness work. Thank you and by all means keep praying.
Blessing
Pastor Jeff
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