Some months back in the process of tidying up my apartment, tired of all the excess cable length lying around while plugged in to various devices, I bought a super short cable for my phone to charge while sitting upright on its stand on my kitchen bench. It was a stretch, but the cable just made it from the power point to the charging port on my phone.

Long story short . . . what I thought to be just long enough . . . was creating tension . . . and I rogered my phone’s charging port.

So I had to return to using my original long cable, so that I could lay my phone down on the bench, with something thick enough under the tip of the plug so as to create counter pressure to ensure my phone would charge. As time went on, that wasn’t enough. Now I had to increase the counter pressure by putting something weighty on top of my phone.

Due to the unstable connection, my phone would beep every time it lost its charging connection, and again when it found it. The beeping was annoying, not to mention having to constantly re-jig the connection. Even when it was successfully charging, I had to keep checking the connection, or as had already happened, it would charge, and then in the unstable connection (and not hearing the beep), it would drain that charge.

What was supposed to have simplified my space . . . had complicated it.

So now here I am, months later, having sought out a repairer. I had been advised by my telecom service provider, I need to take it to a phone repair replace: “One of those pop up shops.” they said. But due to the pandemic, any I knew of in my local area and surrounding suburbs were now closed. I was advised to go to a major shopping centre, and given I have no land line (just one reason why my phone is an essential item), I felt justified in going there.

So I ventured out to seek this service. Unfortunately the tech repair guy was ‘enjoying’ his day off that day, so I was advised to come back on another day. I returned on that day, and unfortunately, he had been called to another job, and didn’t know when he’d be back in store. So they gave me a business card to call before my next visit. I was told that due to the pandemic, his in-shop hours are ever changing, and so getting my phone repaired was looking like an unpredictable, ongoing saga.

On my way home that same day, I needed to do some grocery shopping, but I live in one of the ‘hotspot’ suburbs, and the current guideline is: Where possible, shop within your suburb. I was dubious about going to my first choice supermarket due to it being near a particularly hot spot cluster, and so I considered going to another supermarket within my suburb. While I didn’t want to give in to fear, I questioned myself: “Is this fear? Or wisdom? Maybe I should just go to that supermarket anyway?” I decided to go with wisdom, and my second choice supermarket.

As I entered this small shopping hub, there on my right I saw a new pop up store selling phone cases and such, so I stopped and casually asked: “I don’t suppose you do phone repairs do you?” She said yes. And so it was, they checked out my phone, organised the part I needed, and in less than an hour I had a new charging port (with a 3 month warranty) all done for a cheaper price than the other place had quoted me.

While I felt guilty for avoiding going to one supermarket, because I (rightly or wrongly) perceived it to be a potentially higher ‘contact risk.’ It was that perception that then directed me to my second option supermarket, to find in the shopping hub, exactly what I needed, but didn’t know was there.

In believing my steps are directed by a higher power – God, I could only conclude that He knew what I needed, and He directed me to it. And so (relevant here and for life itself) this thought came to mind:

Maybe it’s not so much about:
What you’re steering away from
As much as it is about:
What He’s steering you toward.