Today in church, I committed the cardinal sin (excuse the pun) of sitting in the aisle seat of an empty row. What followed was a series of, "excuse me", "uh, sorry ah", "um, so sorry" throughout some part of worship. I think I speak for anyone who's ever been an usher when I say that you should always, always move to the end of the row.

Anyway, while on the bus home after lunch, some aunties and uncles boarded (at times, when we say aunties and uncles, it does not refer to blood relations. It's a generic term for people who are older... say, in their late forties and above). They were shouting to an Indian uncle, "Eh, uncle, your bag ah! You left your bag!" Mr Indian Uncle shook his head to indicate it wasn't his bag. This led the group of aunties and uncles to hurriedly say (half-jokingly), "Eh, better don't touch ah. Maybe got bomb inside then we all mati!". Again, for the non-Malay speaking people, "mati" is Malay for "die". I was rather amused by the whole commotion. Couldn't resist smiling (something I hardly do on public transport, don't ask me why... defense mechanism perhaps) for some part of the journey :) To set the record straight though, this doesn't mean I'm taking the whole terrorist thing lightly. It's a serious matter and we should be vigilant but not paranoid.

Okay, testimony time. It was (and still is) raining cats and dogs. As usual, I was brolly-less. This led to serious consideration on the bus. What if the rain doesn't stop when I get off (it certainly didn't look like it was going to)? So what do you do in situations like these? You PRAY. Hard. So pray I did. "God, please still the rain for the time that I have to walk from the bus stop to my block of flats". I had faith that God could (and certainly can) do anything. So I arrived at my destination. The bus stopped. The rain didn't. Ok, never mind, once I step out of the bus shelter, the rain will miraculously stop. Ok Mel, go! Move your feet! You can imagine I didn't exactly move straightaway. C'mon, it was pouring!! I felt kinda dumb, standing at the bus stop, looking longingly at my block. Then, that still, small voice that God is so well-known for gently entered my head.

"Step out in faith, Mel. Just go."
"But God, it's really raining very hard you know?" Duh. He made the rain. Of course He knows. Again, the voice,
"Just step out in faith."
"But... but.."

You know, in such times, it's amazing that God can still be patient with us..

So FINALLY, I decided, okkaay... I'll gooo.... And I went. Splish, splosh, splash. Lo and behold, Mom appeared with a BIG umbrella. WELL... He certainly came through for me!

So what's my point? My point is this - God may not always answer your prayers the way you want Him to. He certainly didn't answer my prayer. I told Him to stop the rain but He didn't. BUT, He will always deliver you. He sees the purpose, not necessarily the problem. The purpose was to get to my flat safe and dry. The problem was the rain. He didn't take the problem away but He delivered me from the problem. The purpose was fulfilled.

See, so many times, we just want God to take the problem away but He does even better. He goes beyond that. He delivers us from our problems. That's what we ultimately want, isn't it? He never ceases to amaze me :)

So I got back safely, went into my room, looked into the mirror, pointed at the person in the mirror and said, "You have an AMAZING God".