Sunday morning as I prepared to depart for church service, I decided to wear a pair of earrings from EARrestible, by my Sis, Swanda Warren. The earrings read, “God Over Everything.” I thought they would be the perfect addition to my fit, but alas, I could not find one of the earrings. I maintain a tidy and organized method of my jewelry, so the fact that one was missing was difficult to believe. I combed the cabinet but came up with nothing. If I continued on said path, we would be late, so I chose another pair, gifted to me by my forever roommate, Kieshia and went on my merry way. Of course, the Holy Spirit began to provide insight for my little dilemma. I cannot rock “God Over Everything” without placing my full trust not only in the sentiment, but in the “Rock” himself. To live, move and have my being in the manner by which God intended, I must hold the reality of “God Over Everything” in everything I do, encounter, hope and engage. While loosing one earring doesn’t measure up to what we encounter on a daily, it is a simple yet powerful and gentle reminder that God is in control, that God has taken our situations and circumstances into account and still rises above what we only capture at the surface and to be honest, we cannot trust what we “see” without filtering it through the lens of God.

What is your everything? Is it family, marriage, health, finances, education, dreams, aspirations, emotional stability, trusting? Whatever your “everything” is, we fair so much better during the wait (even if “it” doesn’t result in our desire), when we are bold and obedient enough to place “it” under the auspices of God and allow Him to engage His best work. We are reminded in the Word of God of everything in many scriptural references: 1) He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11); 2) “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. (I Corinthians 10:23); and 3) His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. (II Peter 1:3). The compilation of these scriptures suggests that things take time, we can choose through our free will to take matters into our own hands, but in the interim, God has given us what we need to be sustained in the wait without our intervention – which brings us to the response, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord” (Psalm 150:6). So then, what should be our response as God does what needs to be done? Praise. As we praise, we remind ourselves and honor God that indeed we are trusting Him over everything that attempts to take our attention off of Him.

I still don’t know where my other earring is. I still don’t know when what I have petitioned God for will be resolved. But what I do know is that it is on God’s radar and He is above it and worthy of my praise.