It was like a movie

Wow. Today was a six-lesson day. Truly a miracle. What was more of a miracle was that these 6 people were all taught on a day where we had district meeting, and then lunch, so we didn't get out until about two. 

For lunch, we went to Q's Mall, to a tabehoudai (all you can eat) place called Shabu Shabu, and ate a good bunch of meat. (Note: at these kinds of places, they give you a salad and side and stuff, and it's extraordinarily rude if you don't eat it all. With the style of Shabu Shabu that we ordered, it came with two eggs that we were expected to eat, raw, with the meat. But I'm not so fond of raw eggs, so I boiled them in the table's pot and smuggled them into my bag.

As we went to teach our lessons, we had to cross a big bridge. On the underside of the bridge was a bicycle path overlooking the rest of the river. The sun was setting on the horizon, and the sky was just turning orange. It was like a movie.

For our final appointment, it took a little over an hour to get to our member's house, and they fed us kabocha- (pumpkin) flavored cake. We shared a small message, but their testimonies were powerful. It was a good visit.

However, we had only 45 minutes to get home. We said a quick prayer for speed and safety and set off.

We hit. EVERY red light. The entire way.

I played in my mind, as we were braking for yet another light, how I would console myself if we were late for curfew. I would pat myself on the back and say, "You worked hard, you gave it your best shot. God will forgive you. You can't be perfect all the time. It can't be helped." At the same time, I thought of 1Nephi 3:7. I thought of Gideon, and the deliverance of Alma and his people. Now, my life wasn't in danger, I would certainly get out of the experience without emotional trauma, but I would be breaking mission standards and commit an act of disobedience. God didn't want me to be disobedient, and he certainly knew about the abnormal streak of red lights. I knew He heard our prayer because He's heard all our others. So I decided this was a trial of faith. I couldn't change the lights. What I could do was pedal fast and remember the God who created the time I was racing against.

We were five minutes away from home when I looked at my watch and saw we had a little more than a minute left. We got home with fifteen seconds to spare.

God heard our prayer. God hears all our prayers, but sometimes, like the tale of Gideon, I believe he stacks the odds against us. Sometimes he says to us, "The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the [the enemy] into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me." And he stacks the odds, not to make us uneasy, not to hurt our feelings or shake our faith, but to make His deliverance unmistakable. When the odds are stacked against us, we don't need to worry. Rather, "dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed."