My wife and I have on occasion taken trips with no reservations to spend the night. While living in California, on trips to southern California where I had the opportunities to speak, my wife enjoyed traveling with me and spending the night near the beach.
On a couple of occasions we were not able to find an available hotel room in not only the city of our choice, we had to drive another two hours or more to find a room. On one such trip – when Pam was suffering from chronic back pain, before her surgery – we began our hotel room search in Santa Barbara around 6:00 and finally found a room in King City around 12:00 midnight, another 200+ miles. And there is no beach around King City!
We stopped in every small town and city checking every hotel we could find. We certainly found out that night that things do not always go as planned or as we like.
Think with me of a similar story found in Luke 2:1-7, when Joseph and Mary traveled to Bethlehem and could not find a room to stay. Imagine – Instructed by the government to take a trip you were not planning to take, to a place you had not planned to go, and that you had not budgeted money or time for. This is the lot that fell to Joseph.
On top of this Joseph was to take his nine-month pregnant wife on this journey.
I can relate to Joseph. I truly felt for my wife and her back pain that night we could not find a room. But we had to keep pressing on and place our hope in God providing for us.
One innkeeper did find a place for Joseph. In a cave-like hole in the side of a hill, where animals were stabled. Joseph and Mary were going to spend their time in this strange city in a cave for housing. Not only their time, this was to be where Mary would give birth to her first-born child. Not only her first-born, this was God’s only son. How would you feel?
We need to take a lesson from Joseph. He took on a situation which was against societal culture. In fact, his first thoughts when he found out Mary was pregnant, was to put her away (divorce her) privately. But the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him not to. When society says no room, God says, No problem!
When the stresses of life say there is no room for rest and peace, why not say, No Room, No Problem!
When in a difficult situation or in pain and hardship, when there is no room for comfort, why not say, “No room, No problem!”
When you place your full trust in God, no matter what your situation, you can say, No Room, No Problem. God is bigger than my situation.
Merry Christmas!
George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.