Little Do We Know When It Comes to Life
The year was 1986 and we were newlyweds, young, excited about the promise of life that lay before us. We had a plan; it was a good plan and one we knew would work with our life plan. Let me stop right here and remind us: We are not in control because it is a truth—GOD IS—IN CONTROL—of everyone and everything.
God is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. What do all those words mean?
GOD IS GOD & we are not!
Our plan (my husband and I) was to be childfree for five years, maybe six, and then at age twenty-five, get pregnant, have our first of six children (all boys). It was a good plan, our plan, and we lived in light of that plan, making it our response when people asked that ever-coming question to all newlyweds: “So, when are you going to have kids?”
A five-year plan. Our plan. A Good Plan, but now, looking back, clearly it was NOT GOD’S PLAN.
- Little did I know that God had another plan for our lives.
- Little did I know that God wanted to gift us with a little girl—one that we would take home on the thirteenth-year-anniversary of our marriage.
- Little did I know that God would give this beautiful little girl a heart for travel, a desire to study abroad, and a passion for helping others.
- Little did I know that God would give our little girl a husband who would marry her and whisk her 5,000+ miles away from our home.
- Little did I know.
Quite amazingly, little did I know that during 1998, the same year our little girl was conceived, God was also gifting another family, 5,000+ miles away, with a little girl—one that was born right there, inside their home with the help of a midwife.
- Little did I know (for like, forty-plus years of my life) that the worlds of these two families would “nicely” collide one October day.
- Little did I know that God would give this beautiful little girl a heart for travel, a desire to study abroad, and a passion for helping children.
- Little did I know that this little girl would one day grow up to become a teacher (like me).
- Little did I know.
I am a teacher, and in the discovery of what I collect, I have found that God has given me a passion for relationships.
- Little did I know that over the course of my career, God would cross my path with so many young women who enjoyed coffee, hikes, and sitting on my front porch—talking.
- Little did I know there would be years of sharing life with so many—truly a blessing from God.
- Little did I know that God had such a sense of humor and a quest for blessing us, for when I asked for six boys, God responded with—Let us give them girls instead.
- Little did I know that my life would be so overly blessed by a most gracious God!
- Little did I know.
Truly, our five-year plan was not God’s plan for our lives.
Truly, GOD IS GOD & we are not!
God’s Word is the direction we must follow for our lives.
We must not only read and listen to God’s Word, but truly, we must take God’s teaching and direction into our hearts and lives, allow the Holy Spirit to shape our lives, to surrender to God, to walk the life-path God gives us to walk, to study, really STUDY & OBEY GOD’S WORD!
TRULY! YES—TRULY!!!
Earlier this morning, I read a statistic: In North America (alone), there are 275 million people who are lost, who do not know Christ Jesus as Savior.
275 MILLION!
I had to allow that number to sink in for a bit, maybe you too.
I also read that almost every nation in the world is presently represented in our land—the United States. EVERY NATION! EVERY TONGUE! EVERY PEOPLE!
This statistic just astounds me, but since God moved me two years ago, since I now have the beautiful gift of teaching in a different setting, God has given to me the opportunity to interact with people from all over the world.
How does something like this occur when we are walking through life, focused upon our life-plan, making progress to reach our goals, and preparing for what we know comes next (in our mind’s eye at least)?
It happens because TRULY, GOD IS GOD & we are not!
God led me this morning to read a difficult passage from His Word—Lamentations. Normally, I do not find myself drawn to this book in the Bible, the one that comes right after the prophet Jeremiah’s book, after the destruction of Jerusalem and after the conquering of Judah, after the Babylonians took control. No, the book of Lamentations is not usually my first read, but God leads us to see the sorrows of others, to take them seriously, and to not turn ourselves away from their struggles but to pay attention, to see, really see what God is teaching us. SEE WITH ME A PORTION OF GOD’S WORD.
“I am the man who has seen affliction. . . . (verse 1) In dark places He has made me dwell,
Like those who have long been dead. . . . (verse 6) Even when I cry out and call for help,
He shuts out my prayer. . . . (verse 8) I have become a laughingstock to all people,
Their mocking song all the day. . . . (verse 14) My soul has been rejected from peace;
I have forgotten happiness.
So I say, ‘My strength has perished,
And so has my hope from the LORD.’”
(Lamentations 3: 1, 6, 8, 14, 17-18)
- Let us be quiet; let us declutter our lives; let us hear God.
- Let us open God’s Word; let us listen for Him to speak; let us heed His will.
- Let us hear and obey the gentle knocking of God as He whispers to our quiet soul, as He seeks to permeate our entire being.
- Let us be imitators of Christ Jesus in a hurting world.
LET US BE STILL AND KNOW GOD—IS GOD!
We know the world around us is hurting, and we know that many are buried so deep in their affliction, in their pain, in their turmoil, and we know that so many may not know God as we do, as our Savior. So, we bow and we pray. So we lift up our hands in pleading and in prayer as we exclaim (as Jeremiah did in his lament).
“Surely my soul remembers
And is bowed down within me.
This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope.
The LORD’S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,
For His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
‘The LORD is my portion,’ says my soul,
Therefore I have hope in Him.’
The LORD is good to those who wait for Him
To the person who seeks Him.
It is good that he waits silently
For the salvation of the LORD.”
(Lamentations 3: 20-26)
- Let us thank God for the way He has changed us. Let us work, doing the kingdom work. Let us begin to view obstacles through this spiritual lens, lean into Christ, and place our absolute dependence on Him.
- Let us be gentle toward others & bold for Christ. & Let us be an influence for the cause of Christ!
- Let us be intentional. Let us live, showing the world that we have been changed, that Jesus lives in us.
- Let us be praying, asking God for opportunities to witness. Let us stop being afraid.
- Let us SHARE the peace to all life’s struggles—the one Only God can supply.
- Let us not be intimated but Let us PREACH the GOSPEL—to all nations.
- Let us be persistent in godliness & Obedient to the Lord as we witness of His resurrection.
- Let us take our command to evangelize—Serious!
- There is so little we know when it comes to life. Let us be serious in the preparation of our hearts for Resurrection Sunday.
LET US BE STILL AND KNOW GOD—IS GOD!