My New Year started this way. My husband was at work and I took the dog out for her morning walk, locking the door to the house as I usually do. I intended on leaving for a visit to my sister's house in a nearby town in just a short while and noticed that there was frost on the windshield of the car. I thought to myself, "I'll just start it up and let the engine warm and defrost the windows while I'm out here." Doing that, I exited the car and shut the door and heard the automatic door locks activate and instantly knew I had made a mistake. The door to the house was locked, my car was running and locked and the dog and I stood outside looking at the keys in the car ignition.

One thing I did have with me was my cell phone. In a panic I called my husband at his work place (about 35 miles away) and he said he would start home. I called my sister and she reminded me she had a key to the house and could bring it up. About that time my husband called back and reminded me that we had an emergency house key hidden in the garage and that he had made me an emergency car key to keep in my purse a couple of years before. So in short order I was in the house, retrieved the car key and all things were back to normal, but what a way to start a New Year! (Name withheld to protect my wife's reputation — Russ Lawson!).

As I thought about this incident I thought how often we have feelings of panic when God has already made preparations to keep us safe. How "Happy" can the New Year or any part of any year be if we are constantly in doubt and perhaps even in panic about what will happen next?

We don't know what good things God has in store!

A lot of scriptures run through my mind at times like this, but one passage always seems to come to the top:

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28 KJV).

Lessons from a Sheep Dog: A True Story of Transforming Love by Phillip Keller Allow yourself to see Biblical truth in this classic tale of what can happen when you yield to the Master.

Russ Lawson is a former missionary to Africa and minister in Ohio. He now works with World Christian Literature Outreach and writes a weekly email devotional, Messages from the Heart. For more information about Russ, click here.

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