Categories: Faith Stories

The Unexpected Sneaker Wave

A sneaker wave is a large, unexpected wave that can surge up out of nowhere. It can come even when the waters are calm, and they can be so enormous and strong that they can be deadly.

That is very similar to what just happened, as we followed God’s path of promise to the next place. When I left off our last update, I had shared that we left the Airbnb and follow God to stay in a hotel room downtown. I used all I had and paid for 2 nights, and then watched to see what God would have us do.

The pressure was really thick, as the reservation was about to run out. Normally, I would use the time of waiting for God to deliver His fulfilled promise, by concentrating and stretching my faith to believe, trust, and let go of my fears and doubts.

The night before we had to check out the next morning, around 10 p.m., I had an unexpected message from the payment processor I have used since the start of this blog ten years ago.

Out of nowhere, they said that they would no longer service my payments and that they were cancelling all future and pending payments I was owed. I was so stunned…it felt like a massive wave hit me smack in the face, and the sting of it left my mind spinning in confusion.

Thankfully, God led me through a way to go and since I already had another company that I used in the background, I was able to transition with the new company.

However, since my last web store was through the company that dropped me, I had to find a new way to display our products. So instead of focusing my faith and exercising my faith to see the fulfillment of what God was saying, I had to frantically build a whole new website as fast as I could.

I had my alarm set for 6 a.m. the next morning, so that I could prepare to pack and move if nothing came in to save us. God had been giving me signs that we would stay in the same room, so I had hope that something would show up in time.

Right when I woke up at 6, I received the notification that I was given the rescue, we needed to stay in the same room. I was so thankful….like bawling in tears of gratitude.

By that time, I was so exhausted from the unexpected attack, that I hadn’t had time to even prepare myself to move. I was crying before it all, for God to save us and let us stay in the same room, because I was weary and needed rest.

I was also battling stress, because that day of building a website put me a day behind on the orders I was working on, too. It was stressful, but when the enemy came against me like a flood, God lifted a standard over him to bless us.

With a great sigh of relief, I extended the room for a night, and started to build my new website. It took all day, and again, I was not able to center myself in faith like I needed to be for the kind of faith living of facing life and death.

God had told me that day that the difficulties would make me stronger and to bless the storm because it was taking us higher. That is what happened, my new web store turned out to be immensely more beautiful than the last and the new payment processor has been perfect.

Although God lifted us over that unexpected sneaker wave, I was still in the fire of this faith test. There are big events in Chicago right now, and the place that we are staying had no rooms open for the next day.

My daughter and I were so tired of moving, and desperately hoped to stay in the same place, so we could re-center and rehabilitate before having to face the whirlwinds of moving and faith risks of trusting God to send the money that we would need.

I kept checking the hotel app and no rooms would show up. I had no idea what to do, because there were underlying things going on (that I cannot share) that made it a million times more stressful. Plus, there were not any rooms available at all, except those that were higher than what we could do at that time.

My daughter really surprised me because she had such a calm confidence that a room would open up here. But I already started to pack because it looked completely hopeless.

I think the hardest thing about checking out, is the ‘in between’ time before you can check in. It is painful to have no where you can go for rest, and when we check out, the reality of that really sets in.

Normally we find something fun to do in between to make the best of a difficult thing, and that has helped us find the silver lining of having to live this way, until God finally brings us to our promised home.

At 3 a.m. this morning, my daughter woke me up to say that the hotel was showing a room. We wasted no time to reserve another night, so that we would recover and prepare for what would come next.

For reasons that God has, we have had to take it day by day. The hotel already shows no openings tomorrow, and we are in need of many miracles to carry through the next doors.

Even though it has been uncomfortable to face the challenging waves, and only be allowed to take one step at a time, it is building trust and confidence in God to honor His words to hold us up.

The one promise that God has been saying to me every morning, like a ray of sunshine, is this: I will not in any way fail you, nor give up on you, nor leave you without support. I will not leave you helpless, nor forget you. I will not relax My hold on you, most assuredly not”.

I have been learning through this recent process of taking things step by step, that my reliance on God is where my strength is hidden. Those unexpected sneaker waves can and do come, like a brutal force of nature, but when they do come, God lifts us over them and brings us out even better than before.

Our enemies are a blessing. The more we are attacked, the more we are blessed. It is the law. God is a God of justice, and He will always settle the score and use those waves of warfare to carry us into all we have been hoping for and so much more.

My blog is still at the same web address, diamondsfromthedust.com. However, the store that I am using is now brand new! The new store is at dannetteward.com.

Thanks for walking over these waves with us. The journey to the promised destination is where we pick up the hidden treasures, like shimmering pearls and opulent shells in the sand.

The things that you are walking through now, will only add even more beauty to the place where God sets you as His promises are radiantly fulfilled. So whatever you are walking through, don’t forget to gather the pearls that glitter along the way.

A pearl is the product of comfort, after the mollusk was irritated by an afflicting object in its shell. When the mollusk is discomforted and agitated, it produces more comfort, by releasing layers of glistening nacre over the discomfort, to form a pearl.

Your troubles are giving you pearls, and the unexpected sneaker waves are causing them to wash upon the shore and right into your hands. There are always blessings, even in the attacks. Everything will result in blessings for you, because God has already got you covered.