Page 64 of Austen

“You okay, sis?”Steinbeck asked.

“Yeah,” she said and raised her head.“I’m just praying.”

Declan looked away.“Not sure God’s going to get us out of this one.”

She frowned at him.“Of course He is.”

He met her gaze.Silence fell between them.Then, “I think it’s pretty clear that we’re in over our heads here.I mean, we’re locked inside a smelly crew berth on our way to a communist country.I feel like maybe God has abandoned us.”Or worse, was laughing at them.But he couldn’t manage that thought aloud.

“God never abandons us,” she said.

Yeah, well, maybe he wore his argument on his face, because Austen sat up and hung her legs over the edge of the cot.

“Do you really believe that?That we can get into so much trouble that God abandons us?That’sexactlywhen he shows up.”

He shook his head.“Maybe that’s true for some people, but...”He couldn’t look at her.“He didn’t show up when my younger brother was hit by a car.I sat in the hospital chapel, listening to my mom pray all the way to the moment when the doctor came in and said that he was gone.He was ten years old.Delivering papers on his route.So the best-case scenario is that God looked away.”He met her eyes then.“Or He just didn’t care.”

She frowned.

“We’re in this alone, Austen.”

He paused, and no one made a move to respond.He took a breath and ran his hands down his face.“Listen, I know things happen.But everything changed after that.His medical bills swamped my mom, and I tried to help, but she worked herself to an early death.Where was God then?”

More silence.Then, from Austen: “I’m so sorry.And I’m not going to say something stupid like there’s a reason for everything.But I do know that in the midst of terrible things, Goddoesshow up.”

He glanced at her.

She met his gaze, raised an eyebrow.“We run out of gas, and at that very moment, we see a boat?”

“A boat on the way toCuba,”Declan said.“Maybe it would have been better if we had stayed at sea.Thanks, but I’ll rescue myself.”

“Then you’ll miss the grace of God’s provision.Just because you land in the belly of a whale doesn’t mean that God isn’t in the middle of rescuing you.”

Whale?Oh, wait.He’d heard a Bible story about that.

“And what if hedoesn’trescue us?”Phoenix said.“Just like Declan said.”

Declan looked at her, and she didn’t meet his eyes but lifted her shoulder in a shrug.

“Then,” Austen said, “we’re not meant to be rescued in that moment.Or in the way we think.But I can guarantee you that Goddoesrescue us.Not always in the way that we want, but definitely according to His great plan for us.”

“So His great plan for us includes sitting in a Cuban prison?”Declan said.

She sighed.“Either we trust that God is good and that He has a plan, or we go our own way and try to figure it out ourselves.”She glanced at Declan.“Not to throw shade on anyone, but it’s possible that if we stop trying so hard to fix things, God will step in.”She looked at Stein then.“‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’”

Stein’s mouth tightened.

She offered them all a small smile.

Andoh,Declan wanted to prove to her that he wasn’t the guy Steinbeck and Phoenix said he was.That sure, he’d made some big mistakes, but she could trust him.Really.

Austen looked at Steinbeck, then back at Declan.“Everyone thinks that God won’t give us more than we can handle.But that’s not true.In fact, that thought is absolutely contrary to the nature of God.He puts us in situations that are over our heads because He wants us to need Him.Paul said that when he was sitting in a prison in the bottom of a ship, during a storm at sea that overwhelmed them to the point where they gave up hope of being saved.In another passage, Paul talks about their troubles in Asia as being so dire, theydespaired of life itself.That doesn’t sound like something they could handle on their own.”

Her voice softened.“I know it’s terrifying to be in a place where we can’t control things.But we have to trust that God is good and He is sovereign.Even in Cuba.”

Declan wanted to let her words seep in, find a place in his soul.

“There’s land out there,” Phoenix said.“Looks like we’re coming into port.”

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