Photo by Craig Paulsen (www.craigpaulsenphoto.com)

You can catch up with Part one of the crazy saga that unfolded at Easterfest in my earlier post – A bitter sweet Easterfest.

“What are we going to do to make sure we don’t get a repeat of Saturday nights flash flooding at Easterfest next year.  I really want to come again but I don’t want to waste my money if it’s cancelled again!” was the phone call complaint of the year for me.  Hmmm… “God, can you please help with that one?”

I know during my broken attempts to sleep that Saturday night after eventually crawling into my dry warm bed, I too was having my own question time with God whilst fighting back tears of disappointment…  Wondering why in the world he’d allow an event we had worked on all year to be prematurely ended by such a downpour!   An event that was supposedly meant to bring life and economic relief back into the city after Toowoomba’s devastating floods in January.

Questions upon questions flooded my mind… had we done something wrong to warrant it?  Was Satan throwing his weight around?  Was some kind of battle happening over the grounds of Easterfest that us mere mortals couldn’t even begin to fathom?  Was this a “Job” moment?  What would be our fate?  Questions no one could answer on this side of eternity.  Many of us have probably asked similar questions of late as we’ve been brought to sheer disbelief watching disaster upon disaster unfold around the world – some in our very own neighbourhoods.

Maybe George Bernard Shaw’s quote, “Life wasn’t meant to be easy, my child, but take courage: it can be delightful!” is true.  God hasn’t promised life would be easy.  In actual fact, have you read Christ’s life story?  He sure didn’t get it easy.  His death was sort before he even walked!!!

His promise to us though, is - “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” (Heb 13:5)  So we can be assured, as Christians, amidst the trials life throws us, he’s in the thick of it with us.

To quote an anonymous person’s observation of Easterfest “God pulled the carpet out from underneath us and then caught us in the palm of his hand”.  So whatever the case… the reasons… the criticisms… God may have used some extreme measures to bring our attention to something…  or Satan could have been allowed to mess with us (like in the case of Job)… whatever unfounded reason we could possible conjure up… God has and will provided for all our needs.

He allowed the disturbance to be dramatic enough to give nationwide coverage on every news channel (sample here).  The tent that collapse was safely evacuated and no one was seriously injured.  Much of the Sunday’s park schedule was able to be reconvened to the city (thus pouring even more economic resources back into the businesses of Toowoomba then otherwise would have been possible!) and the vibe was absolutely electric.  For the thousands that stuck around, the night before became the catalyst for a ‘delightful’ day after – that many have reflected on as their best Easterfest ever!

So although things didn’t pan out as WE planned, I have a peace that through this ‘disturbance’ to our human plans greater victories were won then could possibly have been otherwise!

…in saying that… I do hope we can have a ‘no rain’ Easterfest in 2012!