A Light for My Path

In the daily devotional for June 27^th, the author Sarah Young writes as Jesus speaking to us and says:

I designed time to be a protection for you. You couldn’t bear to see all your life at once.

“Jesus Calling” by Sarah Young

One of my earliest blog posts was titled “The Blessing of Not Knowing.” So often when we think of things that have happened, we say “if only I had known.” Thinking wistfully that perhaps we would have made better choices, or appreciated a person or event more. But, we can’t go back in time. And, even if we could, who knows if we could change anything or what would be the outcome of different choices, words, or actions? And, if we could see the future, but not change it, we would never experience joyous surprises. They wouldn’t be surprises. Worse, we would know when hard, or scary, or sad events were coming and wouldn’t be able to prevent them.

Who could live that way?

And, although I have thought about, and written about, not knowing the future’s being a blessing, I never thought specifically about “time being a protection.”

I am a planner by nature. I have a daily to do list that I revise frequently. I even add tasks that I’ve accomplished that weren’t originally on the list just so I can have the satisfaction of checking them off. I have a wall calendar and my phone calendar that I populate religiously so I don’t forget appointments, birthdays, meetings, errands . . .

Many of my plans are designed to help me live a better life. Reading my devotionals every morning. Getting regular dental and medical checkups. Exercising. Planning date nights with my husband, visits with my daughter and her family, or girls’ weekends with old friends. There’s nothing wrong with any of this. But, God’s plans take precedence over my plans. His big picture is orders of magnitude greater than my big picture.

Jeremiah 29:11 is a familiar and oft quoted verse:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you; plans to give you hope and a future.”

It’s incredibly comforting that God has good plans for us. But, this verse can be hard to swallow when bad things are happening. When we lose a job and the bills are piling up, how is God helping us to prosper? When we are sick or injured, isn’t God supposed to keep us from harm? What kind of hope do we have when our child dies? What kind of future is it living without my daughter?

God’s plan, God’s future, God’s time is not our time. The imminently wise King Solomon wrote “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” Proverbs 3:5. This is hard for me. I trust God, but I want to be able to make plans, to know what to expect, to control what happens. Even though my own understanding is limited. 

One thing I know, I have faith in, and I trust is that there is hope and a future that God has given me. It’s an eternal future with Him. Yet, for all my planning, I still don’t know what will happen between now and the fulfillment of that promised future. Because if I knew, I probably couldn’t bear it.

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Laura