Confession time: I hated being single. Of course, anyone who knew me during my early and mid-twenties could tell you this, so it’s not really a secret. I really struggled with the idea that things were supposed to be different and that God had forgotten me. One morning, when my clock radio turned on, the song that came on was “The Middle” by Jimmy Eat World.

Hey, don’t write yourself off yet.

It’s only in your head you feel left out or looked down on.

I frequently share that songs play a key role in my faith. Listening to the radio in my car or my iPod on the treadmill has been some of my most meaningful worship time because God continues to find ways to meet me in places where I don’t expect him to show up. It brings me to a place of awe and reverence to see that God is still present, still “God with us.”

That morning was one such moment. I felt comforted that God was not done with me yet. My story was still being written.

It just takes some time, little girl you’re in the middle of the ride.

Everything (everything) will be just fine,

Everything (everything) will be alright (alright).

I heard this song again recently and thought of that morning. I thought of how I was sure things would never change, but they did. I couldn’t have planned it or expected it, but I turned a corner and suddenly it was very clear how God had been working.

Sometimes it feels like things will never change, but if you are alive and reading this, God is still working in your life. He’s not done. My prayer for today is Paul’s prayer for the church at Ephesus:

My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.

God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.

Glory to God in the church!
Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus!
Glory down all the generations!
Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!

May God’s incredible love for us wipe away our doubts and fears. May we trust his presence and work in every season. And may we continuously glorify the name of our God who can do more than we could ever ask or imagine in and through us.