Planning for our wedding and searching for a house in the midst of COVID-19 has been extremely stressful. 

We initially planned for a large-scale church and banquet wedding. However, we were worried that the coronavirus situation would not have subsided for our initial wedding plan to carry on by October.

There were also a few disagreements, especially over the expectations and demands from both our families. It frustrated me to no end.

During this period, my fiancée and I were also looking for a resale flat.

The circuit breaker disrupted our house search plans because we were not able to view flats physically. Instead, we had virtual viewings through zoom calls with the agent and owners. Within one to two weeks, we viewed about four flats. And when the circuit breaker was over, we viewed more than 10 flats in three weeks!

The stress was overwhelming. There were also a lot of “what ifs” at the back of my mind, and I wondered if we should keep looking for other resale flats that could be better and cheaper.

Then just when we finally settled on one of the flats we were interested in, it got sold to another buyer who offered a higher amount. We were beyond disappointed.

Fast-forward to another three viewings over the course of two weeks, and we decided on another flat (though it was significantly more expensive than the initial flat we were interested in).

But as I attended service online one weekend, I felt the urge to continue worshipping God with my own song. So I paused the recorded service immediately after the worship segment.

Then I was filled by the Spirit, and a song came forth immediately. I wrote down the lyrics while composing the song and completed everything within half an hour.

And as I worshipped Him with this new song, God’s peace and assurance began pouring into me and I was comforted.

One week later, after my fiancée and I decided on the purchase of our flat, I had to go down immediately after work to negotiate on the final price of the flat that we wanted.

On the way to meet the seller’s agent, I said a prayer before singing my new song to God, “Author of My Life”, as I was really anxious about whether we would be able to negotiate a lower price than what was initially offered.

But I was somehow able to feel the peace from God when I began to trust in Him instead of looking to myself or the circumstances around me. The negotiation went successfully and the price was lowered to an amount we were content with!

I realised then that God had been there with us throughout the journey of searching for a home.

As I worshipped Him with this new song, God’s peace and assurance began pouring into me and I was comforted.

As I reflect, another thing I’m thankful for is how we had to have our wedding on a smaller scale in light of the coronavirus restrictions. After all, a simpler wedding was what both my fiancee and I had initially envisioned despite pressures from my parents that a banquet would be more appropriate.

Moreover, our house came at the same time and it would be even more stressful if we were planning our initial large-scale wedding on top of settling our new house. So we can’t be more grateful to God!

With the changes to our plans, we had to quickly call and ask whether our banquet would be refunded. Thankfully, it only took one to two days for the banquet person to get back to me and confirm that we would be able to get the full refund!

At that point, I was in a little disbelief as we had heard that some of our friends were unable to get full refunds for their banquets. So we are really thankful to God for His providence as the banquet would have cost a bomb and we were able to save quite significantly from the refund.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Through this whole process of preparing for our marriage, I felt that God was reminding me to trust in Him more, regardless of the circumstances.

Even though my flat is a big ticket item and a place I need to live in for the next five years or more, God has already ordained the things in my life. That is why I named my song “Author of My Life” as God is indeed the author of my life.

I hope that this song can encourage others to lean more on God, trust more in Him, especially so in uncertain times like these.

Truly, when we have to make big decisions in their lives, we have a God we can trust, one who doesn’t change like shifting shadows.