My just in time prom date

6th April 2021, ~ 3:00am

Yes, I write at odd hours in the morning. It’s at these hours I find that I write deeply from my heart. I wrote this half asleep and of course, spirit-led.

“Waiting on God is like going to prom, standing in the middle of the dance floor and wondering if your prom date is going to show or stand you up. Then, boom. He shows up. He shows up right on time when your favourite song comes up. He doesn’t just show up empty handed, he shows up with lots of gifts – everything you desire and more. He gives you all these gifts, tells you how he’s been admiring you as you’ve been growing, and in the background he’s been getting things to help you look bomb for the next phase (i.e. beyond that moment) and most importantly, waiting for the right time to come over. You look around and notice that everyone is watching in amazement. Everyone is like omg who’s that special person she’s with? He’s so grand! Look at how he comes through for her. He lifts her up. He makes her look so special. He completes her. Yeah, that’s God. The ‘just in time’ prom date. It sucks to fill anxious on the dance floor (i.e. when you’re waiting for His promise). It really sucks. But He never ever abandons the ones he’s promised and said he loves recklessly. So deep breaths and have a little faith.

My Lord, my God, my just in time prom date. ”

– Tumi Erikitola, The Power Closet

God gave me a clear word in 2021 – my darling sweetheart, quit roaming around and leave this path you’re on i.e. the time has come for you to switch career paths. You see, when I heard this I was initially very sceptical. I thought it was the devil trying to lead me astray at first. How can? I’ve only been here for ~7 months. I thought this was where he told me I’d be for a while? I thought the usual path is to stay 2 years? What do you mean by it’s time to pack my bags? I’m not ready! How can you just say that and your voice goes back to being so still? So I launched into prayers, fasting, and deep fellowship. What did I realise? Well, that it was time to pack my bags. Let’s just say various events also made it pretty clear it was the end of the road.

So after I found peace that it was time to move on, I decided I would make an effort to discover things which may be in this “new place”. A scary thing, but exciting at the same time. Me being me, I went overboard on networking, research, trying to find what God had promised. But you see, this is when I realised something was off. If God asked me to leave one place to go elsewhere, surely he’ll provide the path to get there no? I can boldly say – Yes, he will. Now this does NOT mean when you hear from God you sit in your princess Jasmine dress or Superman outfit and wait for God to magically produce a miracle for you. No, you must do your part. But there comes a point in time when you’ve done all you can and you just WAIT. You WAIT. As a believer, I know I am entitled to favour. If I have done my part and trusted, He will show up. He’s my just in time prom date. He will not leave me standing out here to experience embarrassment and shame. I have found that this waiting period is where people [myself included] find deep pain. It is quite frankly uncomfortable.

You see, as I’ve sat through this waiting period, I’ve learnt that I’m actually terribly impatient. I’m a very goal-oriented person. I set goals, and I work like crazy to ensure I smash these goals. But what happens when God tells you something, you add it to your “goals” and your to-do-list but because it’s God-led, you don’t have all the variables to smash these targets? You actually don’t even know how to smash the goal because he hasn’t told you everything YET. I’ll tell you what happens. What happens is that people like me end up going to visit the “upside down”. But every day through His Grace the upside down lasts only a few minutes at most and His Grace renews my faith. I’m reminded that God shows up. He shows up.

What I want to communicate in this first post is that sometimes we have our own plans [and timelines] but He interrupts and gives you a new plan. To make matters more complicated, he rarely gives you a timeline so you go through a period of waiting for a promise. This requires faith. But faith need not be a mountain. All you need is faith as tiny as a mustard seed.

I’ll stop here today because it’s a long story and we are on our first post 😇

Stick with me. More to come.

Love,

T