I opened my eyes and my first thought was, “Wow. It’s awfully bright for 6:00 a.m.”

Then I rolled over in my bed to glance at my clock only to see it wasn’t 6:00 a.m. It was 7:30 a.m. I was at that moment supposed to be walking into work. I’d like to be able tell you what my second thought was, but in the interest of keeping this all G rated I’ll just skip it.

Immediately after THAT thought, I jumped out of bed in a dead run for the shower. My heart rate was off the charts, and my mind was running wild.

How did this happen? I know I set my alarm the night before. What will my boss and coworkers think of me?

After my quickest shower ever, I called work to tell them that I had not actually forgotten to come to work… but that I would be a weensy bit late. It was nothing short of a miracle, but twenty minutes after my mad dash for the shower I was fully clothed, out the door, and on my way to work.

If that’s ever happened to you, you know it’s not the ideal way to start your day. I would rather kind of slide into the day, not bound into it. I was halfway to work before my heart rate returned to normal.

It wasn’t until much later that I realized something about the start of my day.

I have certain beliefs about God, and the part He played in how my day got going. If my life is a symphony, then God is the conductor. Yes, it’s Romans 8:28, but it’s more than that.

God could certainly take my messed up morning and shape something good from it. But I’ll venture to go one step further. I’m pretty sure that everything that happened that day, goobered up alarm clock and all, happened right on schedule.

It’s like the Caedmon’s Call lyrics from
“Table for Two”:

Well this day’s been crazy
But everything’s happened on schedule
From the rain and the cold
To the drink that I spilled on my shirt
‘Cause You knew how You’d save me
Before I fell dead in the garden
And You knew this day
Long before You made me out of dirt

I believe that God is so intimately involved in His creation that for whatever reason, I needed to be late to work that day. Perhaps I avoided an accident on the interstate. Maybe my delayed schedule caused me to cross paths with someone I would not have otherwise come across. I don’t have a clue. But I should have trusted God with my day from the start.

My early morning panic just didn’t fit with my idea of God, really. I was so busy freaking out over oversleeping, that I didn’t stop to think that God was still God, He was ordering my steps, and everything would be fine.

And, of course, it was.