I have expectations about where I'll meet God.

Most mornings it looks like this: a cup of tea, my Bible, my journal, a few quiet minutes to pray and reflect before the day begins. That rhythm has become one of the places where I feel closest to Him.

Over this past week none of that happened.

We lost power for days. Temperatures climbed over 100 degrees. July 4th came and went. The morning routine that grounds me most, completely gone.

Then my daughter's phone overheated and stopped working. I bought a new one, spent time setting it up, and somehow managed to erase both phones in the process.

I took a deep breath. Life was throwing me some curve balls and all I could do was accept them and take the next step forward. And then I did something I don't do easily. I cancelled my appointments, let the week be what it was, and decided to stop fighting it.

The next day I went back to the phone store hoping someone could help me recover what had been lost. The employee who helped me noticed my wallpaper, an AI created image of me standing with Jesus behind me, his hand on my shoulder.

"I like your wallpaper," he said.

He spent far more time helping me than I expected. He didn't charge me for any of the transfers. And before I left he said "I'll pray that your power comes back today or tomorrow."

The next day it did!

Looking back over the last week I realized something. I hadn't lost God. I had only lost my routine.

God was still showing up; in unexpected kindness, in answered prayer, in the generosity of a stranger I never would have met on an ordinary week.

I believe it’s important to create space for God. It's one of the reasons I write this newsletter. Our lives are full and if we're not intentional we can become spiritually depleted without even realizing it.

But last week reminded me of something else entirely.

God isn't limited to the spaces we create for Him. He also meets us in the spaces we didn't choose.

Spiritual practices matter. Prayer matters. Scripture matters. Silence matters. They help us become more aware of God's presence and more open to His work in our lives.

But spiritual formation doesn't pause when life interrupts our plans. If anything that's often where it deepens.

Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness before beginning His public ministry. The wilderness wasn't comfortable, but it became a place of profound preparation and trust. We don't usually choose our own wildernesses. Sometimes they look like a difficult season. Sometimes they're simply a week where nothing goes according to plan.

The invitation is always the same: will we keep looking for God there?

This week when something doesn't go according to plan, and something will, resist the urge to see it only as an inconvenience.

Pause. Stay curious. Ask: Lord, how might You want to meet me here?

God may be doing something in the interruption that you couldn't have planned your way into.

Lord,

Thank You for meeting me in both the quiet moments I seek and the unexpected ones I don't. Help me create space to be with You, but give me eyes to recognize You when my plans fall apart. Teach me to trust that You are present not only in my routines but in every circumstance.

Amen.

Sometimes we meet God in the stillness. Sometimes we meet Him in the interruption.

Both can become places of transformation.

Next week I'd love to share a prayer my mentor sent me a few weeks ago. I had planned to write about it starting this week, but after everything that happened, I think I finally understand it a little differently.

Until then, may you find that God is already present, perhaps in places you weren't expecting.

The Aligned Life is a community built on peace, love, joy, and commitment to family and self. Together we seek to live aligned with God’s purpose in everyday life.

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