Sovereign.

Viet Nam, 2007

God's sovereignty is one of the greatest comforts of my life. 

His sovereignty means that he's above all things and before all things (Revelation 21:6), that he knows all things - past, present, and future (Romans 11:33), that he is in control over all things and rules over all things (Psalm 103:19). Those moments that feel like good luck or serendipity? I believe they can only be God. He's constantly working our situations for his good, for our good. Sometimes it's barely noticeable, and other times, it can't be missed.

Flipping through an old journal the other night, one example of his sovereignty in my own life just blazed on the page.

I was in Viet Nam, teaching English for two weeks with a group from my school. I had become friends with Tran, and on one of our final nights, we rode to dinner on the back of her motorbike through the rain-drenched streets of Saigon. As she weaved through traffic, Tran asked me what I was studying in college.

"The Bible," I responded.

"What?" she asked, and I wasn't sure if she couldn't hear me or if she didn't understand that English word.

"I'm studying the..."

And before I could even finish the sentence, another motorbike pulled up beside us at a traffic light and the woman began talking with Tran in Vietnamese. I thought they might have been friends, as they talked comfortably for a few moments before the light turned green. Before she sped off, Tran told me, "She explained to me what the Bible is. So you're a Christian?"

The lady on the motorbike then turned to me and shouted in perfect English, "I'm from California. Enjoy Saigon!" and sped away.

How had she possibly even heard me? I wasn't yelling, and I only said "Bible" once, over the deafening rumble of a thousand other motorbikes. And she seemed to have appeared out of nowhere: a rare, fluent English speaker in the midst of hundreds who wouldn't have understood our conversation.

I just couldn't take it as "good luck." I still can't. It gives me chills to think about it. And it was a pivotal moment for me to explain to Tran the meaning of my whole life. Tran then told me she had also been to church, and someone had explained to her that trusting Christ was like a bridge from us to God. She had basic understanding of Christianity, but without the woman on the motorbike, it would have been really difficult to bridge that gap with her mediocre English and my nonexistent Vietnamese.

The thing is, I could recount so many examples just like this that have happened in my own life or in the lives of my friends and family. It doesn't just happen on the other side of the world, but in my daily life.

In those moments when I see our bills piling up and, somehow, our meager salaries pay them all... month after month. God is sovereign, and he provides.
In the friends he brings alongside us to encourage our hearts at just the right time, when they didn't even realize we were having a rough week. He is sovereign, and he is good.

I don't understand all his ways and certainly don't acknowledge every bit of his work in my life, but I am so comforted that he cares enough for me - and for you - that he doesn't just leave us to sort things out alone.