The less we think we know, the better.

45 years of being a Christian – seven years of crazy = 38 years of walking closely with God. 

What GREAT years each has been, every one. God has never left my side through thick or thin. I have seen miracles because He has put me in the position of needing a miracle time and time again. I have come through trials knowing Him better and becoming more like Him. My circumstances have not always been to my liking, but my character has developed more Christ-likeness, and that is more important.

The Bible tells us we are to mature as we walk with Him, and I have, but in today I ponder one way thing I did not expect:

The longer I walk with God, the less I know…and the more I trust that He knows.

God’s plan for history encompasses the entire globe and is as wide as the first day of history to the last. Though we are privy to the overall unfolding of His plan, we can’t possibly know what He is up to specifically. Absolutely impossible to know. So I trust the all-encompassing, all-powerful, all-knowing God with all that I can’t see, both within this blink-of-an-eye life and beyond.

• I don’t know what any day will bring, and I am less apt to think I do.

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. (James 4:13-14)

I have been through too much now to think I can control anything. I never know what the next phone call will bring, what that person will say, how that student will respond, how that doctor’s visit will go. I know I can plan all I want for that beautiful holiday celebration, but maybe a family member will get a call on Christmas morning that their father had a stroke. Can’t know. (True story) It took me too long to figure out that when anything goes well, it’s God’s grace that allowed it, not my careful planning or hard work.

Because I have no idea what God is up to with today, I can relax in what He knows and ride out the daily surprises with a calmness that comes from trust in Him.

• I don’t know what He is doing with my life, and I am less apt to think I do.

But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. (1 Corinthians 12:18)

I have been through too much now to think my dreams were also His dreams for me. I had dreams of being a writer even in kindergarten, and though I write daily and love words, most of the world does not read them. My following is small, my book doesn’t sell much, my audiences are classroom-sized. I do not work where I had dreamed of working, but I work where I was hired. I did not marry the first man I loved, but the man I loved who also loved me back. I didn’t pick my birth date or family, God did, so where I live on the globe and how I was raised was largely determined by Him.

Because I have no idea what God is up to with me, I can relax in what He knows and embrace my life as it is, staying until He moves me.

• I don’t know what He is doing with anyone else’s life either, and I am less apt to think I do.

I have been through too much now to think I can figure people out. For example, I have children I didn’t pick; they were given to me and I have no idea what God is up to with them. One way parenting has surprised me is discovering how different my children are from me, and in addition, how much better they are than me at so many things. Though my fingerprint influences can be seen on their lives, they remain amazingly distinct from anything I have contributed. In so many ways, watching them grow up seems like a holy process. I dare not touch what God had in mind when He fashioned them. He wove each of them together in His image. His finger sculpted their facial features. They have always been His. My role is to let God have His way in a Story for them that only He knows. The same is true for my husband, family and friends. The same is true for every person I interact with on any day.

Because I have no idea what God is up to with others, I can relax in what He knows and love just people instead of trying to figure them out.

Picture Explanation: There is a record-breaking heat wave in our state, but the calendar says it’s October, so can we pretend it’s fall? Enjoy something pumpkin spice.

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