Have you ever been so entrenched in an unpleasant situation that you can’t seem to find a way to shift your focus towards other, more cheerful things? And despite pouring out your soul for God to intervene and fight on your behalf, you still cannot get your brain to cast off the burden? Let’s be real, it’s not always easy to sit back and chill, as the Bible says in Exodus 14:14. “The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.” (NLT)

Today, my wife Diane and I stood in our kitchen, and we hugged tightly. And we prayed—our mindset being to drop a particularly heavy burden at the Lord’s feet—asking him to step in and fight for us when it seemed the enemy was winning the battle. From experience, we know that shifting one’s thinking away from poor circumstances and staying calm can be difficult. Sometimes, however, God steps in to not only transition our focus but also to remind us that He is already out ahead and is fighting on our behalf.

Following our kitchen-based prayer, we decided to run an errand and grab coffees. Arriving at our destination and parking directly in front of a white SUV, its driver nowhere to be seen, I conducted my business while Diane stayed in the car. When I came out of the store, I noticed my wife speaking to someone through her open window. As I approached, I saw a woman beside the white SUV—her arms clutching two freshly bought flattened cardboard boxes as the wind carried two others aloft. Springing into action, I retrieved one of the boxes a good distance away, while another good Samaritan grabbed the second.

Just moments earlier, this visibly distressed soul had set her purse and keys on the driver’s seat so she could load the boxes, but the wind caught her door, slamming it closed and locked. With no spare key, she mentioned to us that she would call an Uber, scoot home and grab her spare fob. While some may call this a total coincidence of timing, I believe that God was about to shift our focus to others and back towards him.

Without hesitation, my wife spoke up and offered this lady a ride, catching her completely by surprise. “But I live farther away,” she said. “That’s okay,” I replied. “We’re happy to help, and quite honestly, your circumstances are a blessing to us because we needed the diversion today.” When she agreed, I loaded her boxes into my van, and we drove to her house. On the way back to retrieve her car, she thanked us and said, “I never thought there were people like you still around.”

In our troubles, the Lord knew that our focus required an adjustment—that we needed to trust him and look beyond ourselves. We needed a reset, and God placed this woman and her plight squarely into our path at just the right time. He used this situation to remind us that we need to look more to Him and less to our own circumstances—to shift focus from our problems and back towards the Problem Solver.

“Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” (Colossians 3:2 ESV). This verse tells us to focus our thoughts on heavenly matters, rather than our earthly concerns. Sometimes God will orchestrate events to shift our focus towards Himself and away from our own troubles. I believe that if we focus more on God, we bolster our faith, which in turn prevents us from being easily shaken by life’s challenges.

I’m good with that. Care to join me?

Paul Smyth