It took 3 hours of traffic...

On Tuesday afternoon I drove to Santa Monica to meet a friend I graduated with for dinner. It was absolutely pouring down rain--a rarity in LA. I left early and arrived in Santa Monica around 2pm in hopes of getting a little homework done before dinnertime and avoiding rush hour traffin in LA (rain makes traffic 10 times worse). I found some free parking and plopped down with my Chai and Medeival Theology reading. My friend and I hadn't figured out a time and place to meet but she was suposed to call me when she arrived in Santa Monica. By the time it was 5pm I still hadn't heard from my friend...5:30 came...6....6:30pm. I had left numerous phone messages and her cell phone was giving me error messages. At this point I realized that something was wrong and I decided to drive to the hotel her mom and her were staying at. After exploring the tiny town of Santa Monica I found the hotel and called their room. There was no answer and the hotel front desk guy told me he had seen them leave. It was 7pm now and I realized we weren't going to catch up with each other and I needed to start my commute back to Pasadena since I had an 8am class the next morning. I got in the car very wet (the rain kept getting harder), tired, hungry, and frustrated. My frustration escalated as I came to a dead stop in traffic within 5 minutes of being on the freeway. I realized it was not going to be a quick 45 minute drive back and I went through my cell phone voicemails to call people back. No one was answering their phone and I had moved about 2 feet in traffic. I stared at the pouring rain outside more irritated than ever... Finally I turned off the radio, put my cell phone down, and listened to the silence. I started to pray...whining, complaining...then in the midst of the complaining to God, I remembered a conversation I had had a couple days ago. As an exteme planning-type person, I like to know what lies ahead of me, what my future holds (I'm almost never right about what actually does happen...but I try and plan regardless). My friend had said to me, "you know you're such a planner but I think it's going to shock you with what God has for you in the future." I had not thought about that conversation anymore but that thought hit me in the car that night. I was suddenly overwhelmed and humbled by God's love and plan for me. My whining and complaining stopped and I spent the next hour and half in awe of God's divine purpose. I found out later my friend had lost her cell phone somewhere in Santa Monica and that's why we couldn't connect. But after an afternoon/night filled with 3 hours of traffic, pouring rain...I had a new reminder of God's peace--and that was amazing.