Four Truths to Remember in 2024

I picked out my 2024 calendar a few weeks ago. It sits on my desk, ready for all the plans and expectations a new year brings. I have specific requirements for a calendar. I like it to have space for monthly, weekly, and daily plans. I like space for lists and reminders, monthly goals and daily tasks.

I guess it’s because I’m a planner. I love thinking about the future. I love setting goals and making plans. I make lists for each day and cross items off as I complete them. There’s some sort of satisfaction in seeing everything crossed off at the end of the day. And my new calendar gives me lots of space to do just that.

A new year, though filled with possibility and dreams yet to come true, can also be filled with uncertainty. In my own life, the past couple of years have brought great loss and upheaval, change and transition. It’s been a struggle to manage the roller coaster of emotions. To find myself in the midst of all the change. To keep my eyes fixed on Christ in the twists and turns of circumstances. Even now, I’m in a season of waiting, wondering what the Lord has next for our family and struggling to keep my hands open for whatever he provides.

I recently read the book, I Want to Escape, by Rush Witt. In it he recounts a story about Andrew Murray who provided counsel to a woman enduring difficult circumstances. At the time, he himself was in physical pain and could not meet the woman in person, so he asked someone else to pass on the message to her instead. He gave her several things to remember about God in times of trouble: 1) “He brought me here. It is by his will I’m in this strait place, in that I will rest.” 2) “He will keep me here in his love, and give me grace in this trial to behave as his child.” 3) “He will make the trial a blessing, teaching me lessons he intends me to learn, and working in me the grace he means to bestow.” 4) “In his good time, he can bring me out again. How, and when, he knows.”

These are truths I’m speaking to my own heart as I embark on a new year. Whatever plans I scratch out in my calendar, whatever lists I make for myself, whatever I hope will happen in 2024, I know that God’s plans supersede my own. He’s already worked out all that this year entails. He’s planned and decreed it to the minutest detail. There are no mistakes to his plan, nothing that he’s overlooked. It will unfold in just the right time and just as I need it. There will certainly be changes to my life in 2024. There will likely be unexpected challenges. There will be lessons to learn and opportunities to rest in his grace. In it all, I know he keeps me in his loving care.

None of us know what 2024 will look like. Yes, we make our plans, but God determines our steps (Prov. 16:9). He is a good and perfect Father. We can trust this new year to him. As Tim Keller once said, “If we knew what God knows, we would ask for exactly what he gives.”

Father in heaven, we enter this new year with open hands, expecting great things from you for you know exactly what we need. Keep us in your loving care and help us to wait and watch with wonder at what you will do in and through us. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Photo by Eric Rothermel on Unsplash

When You Don't Have the Answers

When my kids were little, they were curious about everything. How does the car engine work? Why is thunder so loud? How tall will I get? Why…? I often didn’t know the answer to their questions and had to do some research in order to respond. Sometimes, my answer was, “Let’s look at a book on that topic” or one time, I gave my son a model car engine for him to build.

We live in a day when answers are just a click away. We merely have to ask our phone a question and we receive a ready response. In some ways, this makes us think there is an answer to every question. That we can know everything.

But the Bible teaches otherwise.

In Ecclesiastes 3, the Preacher makes observations about the world. He notes that there are seasons in life, including a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to harvest what is planted, a time to weep and a time to laugh. Then he writes:

“I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man. I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him. That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away” (Ecc. 3:10-15).

God has given us tasks to do in life and they happen in seasons and times that he determines. Whatever the season we are in, there is beauty found there. He then tells that God has placed eternity into man’s heart. We know deep down of God’s existence and his work in this world. We know deep down that we are created beings, dependent upon our Creator. But, we don’t know everything. “…he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end” (v.11). We are finite beings. We do not know the end from the beginning. We don’t know the answer to all the questions. We don’t know how to do all the things. We don’t know why things happen as they do. We are not God.

What do we do with that? As people who want all the answers—who want to ask Siri why we continue to struggle or when our trial will end or how to navigate a difficult decision—the Preacher is telling us to be okay with the fact that we don’t know. To trust that God knows. To rest in the sovereignty of God. There are things he has revealed to us and the rest only he alone knows: “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deut. 29:29). He is the Alpha and the Omega (Rev. 1:8). He is before all things and he holds all things together (Col. 1:17). While we cannot know all things, we were created by an infinite God who does. He not only knows, he determines what is to come and ensures it comes to pass. As his creatures, we are called to fear him, delight in him, and keep our gaze fixed on him (vv.14-15). As we do, we find joy and contentment in what God provides, in the season he provides it (vv.12-13).

Matthew Henry commented on this passage: “Though we see not the complete beauty of Providence, yet we shall see it, and a glorious sight it will be, when the mystery of God shall be finished. Then every thing shall appear to have been done in the most proper time and it will be the wonder of eternity…We must wait with patience for the full discovery of that which to us seems intricate and perplexed, acknowledging that we cannot find out the work that God makes from the beginning to the end, and therefore must judge nothing before the time. We are to believe that God has made all beautiful. Every thing is done well, as in creation, so in providence, and we shall see it when the end comes, but till then we are incompetent judges of it. While the picture is in drawing, and the house in building, we see not the beauty of either; but when the artist has put his last hand to them, and given them their finishing strokes, then all appears very good. We see but the middle of God’s works, not from the beginning of them (then we should see how admirably the plan was laid in the divine counsels), nor to the end of them, which crowns the action (then we should see the product to be glorious), but we must wait till the veil be rent, and not arraign God’s proceedings nor pretend to pass judgment on them. Secret things belong not to us.”

I am just like my children in that I long to know all the answers. I don’t like to wait or live in the unknown. I want to know everything that is going to happen before it does. But God is a good Father and I know him. I know that he makes all things beautiful—even the messy, frayed fabric of my life. I can’t judge it as I see it now. I must wait for its completion when I will stand in wonder and awe at all God has done.

I don’t have the all the answers. But I trust the One who does.

Photo by Daiga Ellaby on Unsplash

Trust in the Face of Change

One thing I’ve learned about life is that once you get used to a particular season or role, life changes. I’ve found this to be true in parenting, marriage, work, and ministry. I remember well how hard it was when my boys dropped their afternoon naps. That was a change I didn’t like at all!

I used to resist change. Or at least try to manage it so that I could know what to expect and prepare for it. I guess it’s because there’s a certain degree of comfort when you think you know what lies ahead. When you feel equipped to face the day because it’s the same as the one before it. When you’ve finally reached a level of confidence in how to do a certain job or task. Yet change inevitably cuts into our life with a harsh reminder that we don’t have control over our lives. For we all too quickly forget that we are dependent upon God and need his rescuing grace.

I’m in the middle season of life, a season filled with constant change. Certainly, there are many physical changes (that’s a whole other blog post!). There are changes in motherhood as I increasingly let go of my duties and watch my children learn to fly on their own. There are changes in marriage as my husband and I find more time and opportunity to focus on our relationship in ways we haven’t for far too long. Some changes are good and bring great joy; others are hard and bring only grief and sorrow.

This year is my oldest son’s senior year. It’s a year of lasts: the last cross country race, last birthday at home, last school events, last holidays. It’s also our last year to pour into his heart all the things we want him to know before he’s unleashed into the world to make his own way. It’s an emotional year for me, a year filled with both grief and joy. Grief at the finality of this season of parenting, the ending of all these years of homeschooling, the ending of all the daily interactions and family life I’ve grown so used to these last seventeen plus years. But there’s joy too as I celebrate with him the fruition of all he’s worked so hard for. It’s a joy to engage with him as a young adult and talk together about his future. I’ve enjoyed watching him think through decisions and develop goals for his life.

Meanwhile, this past fall my father was diagnosed with dementia. Like most diagnoses, this one took us by surprise and flipped my parents’ life upside down. Dementia is a disease that is often referred to as the “Long Goodbye.” I now know why that is. The diagnosis has brought with it grief and sorrow, worry and fear. I’ve found myself in a new role, helping my family navigate it and serving them in whatever way I can. As anyone in this middle stage of life can attest, it’s challenging to care for the needs of your family at home, while also wanting to help your parents who live far away.

In the midst of these changes in my life, I continue to work in discipleship ministry for women—writing, speaking, discipling, and coordinating women’s ministry. I’ve also been developing a lay- counseling/discipleship/one-another-care ministry for women at my church and am excited to see the many months of labor finally come together. While I’m excited to serve the Lord in this way, I feel a profound sense of my weakness. I worry about getting it wrong. I fear letting people down. I feel uncertainty and a weight of responsibility. This change too is another one where I feel my desperate need for God’s grace to equip and sustain me.

While much changes in our lives, from season to season, in our roles and in our labors, one thing remains the same: God never changes. He is the constant in all the unknown. He is the steady horizon when the storms of life swell over us. When everything is chaos, when we are filled with fear or sorrow, our God is with us. When we fill ill equipped to a new task or overwhelmed by uncertainty and lack of knowledge, we can turn to Christ, in whom are found all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:3). We can take comfort in our Lord’s providential care for us and his sovereign rule over all things. While we don’t know what the future holds, we can trust that God not only knows what will take place, he has already determined all that will happen. Though we are weak, we can rest in his strength. As we face the changes and transitions of life, we can be confident that the Lord is at work. He will be our refuge.

I often find comfort in the words of the psalmist, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling” (Ps. 46:1-3). Some events in life feel like our whole world is shifting. It feels like it’s the end of life as we know it. The psalmist reminds me that even if the earth were to give way, even if the mountains were to fall into the sea, God remains our refuge and strength. He is our help and hope.

Dear friends, if you find that your own life is in the midst of transition and change, trust God to meet you where you are with his rescuing love and grace. He is our certain hope in all the uncertainty of life.

God is Both Sovereign and Good

I recently commented to a friend that if there is one thing I’ve learned this year, it is the importance of holding all my plans loosely.

So loose, it’s like I’m not holding them at all.

When the year began, we all had plans and expectations for the year. We moved forward with those plans until a virus was placed in our path and life suddenly slammed on the breaks, upending everything. It was jarring and we still haven’t recovered. Everything’s been upside down ever since. We’ve experienced significant changes in our jobs, our children’s education, our worship, and even to the way we relate with others. We’ve learned not to make plans and if we do, to hold them with open hands.

For many, 2020 feels like a year of interruptions. Of upended plans. Of starts and stops. Of constant change.

At least that’s been my experience.

One recent afternoon, both my husband and I were headed different directions—one to pick up a child up from school, the other to take a child to their game. And then my husband fell and broke his foot. All our plans skidded to a screeching halt. We’ve since had to reorient our lives around this accident. It’s been a significant interruption. And sometimes, I just want the year to move on and finish in the hopes that maybe next year will be better.

As believers, when life’s interruptions cut into our carefully laid plans, we know they are not random. They aren’t simply the result of bad luck. They are divinely placed in our life by our sovereign God. “I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the LORD, who does all these things” (Is. 45:7). Our God is not a distant God; He rules over all he has made, from the hearts of kings (Prov. 21:1) to the number of hairs on our head (Matt. 10:30). He determines the course of history and all he wills comes to pass, “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose” (Is. 46:9-10).

The doctrine of God’s sovereignty is one I’ve turned to many times in my life. When life is hard and I face hardship and suffering and trials, I remind myself, “God is not surprised by this.” While the interruptions of life catch me off guard, God is never surprised by them. He not only knows all that will take place, he ordained all things and ensures that his will comes to pass.

Including the year 2020.

While Christians may mentally assent to the Bible’s teaching on God’s sovereign rule, they may have difficulty trusting in his rule. God’s sovereignty isn’t necessarily a comfort they find rest in. This happens when we look at God’s sovereignty in isolation from his other characteristics. It is important to remember that God’s sovereignty doesn’t exist in isolation; it is fundamentally linked with who he is in the entirety of his character. When we remember that God is holy and righteous—that all he does is perfect, good, and right—then we know he will govern and rule out of his righteousness. When we remember that God loved us in Christ before the foundation of the world and adopted us to be his own, we know that the circumstances he brings into our lives are ordered out of that love.

Because God is both sovereign and good.

God is perfect and wholly good; he is incapable of doing anything that is not good. This means all his ways are good. From the world he created to his acts in history, from his perfect plan for our lives to his kindness poured out on us in Christ—all that he does is good. “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.” (Deuteronomy 32:4).

James tells us that all good things come from God. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." (James 1:17). In spiritual terms, darkness implies evil and there is no darkness in God—he is the Father of lights. He is the source of all goodness and everything he gives us is good and for our good. This verse also tells us that God never changes; there is no "variation or shadow of turning." Our God will never show goodness toward us and then change his mind; he is always good toward us.

When we face interruptions in our life— whether it’s a small one like a fender bender on the way to work or a big one like a world-wide virus—we have to remember that God is both sovereign and good. While the difficult circumstances we face in life are not good, we have a good God who rules over them all. Though we do not understand what is happening and why, we can take comfort that he does. We can trust that all he ordains for us is for our good (Rom. 8:28).

Even when life is interrupted, we can expect good things from our good and sovereign God.

Want to learn more about God and his character? Check out my next book: A Holy Fear: Trading Lesser Fears for the Fear of the Lord.

Three Certainties for Uncertain Times

Uncertainty. If there’s one word I would use to describe this year and life during a world-wide crisis, it’s uncertainty. The dictionary defines uncertainty as “being in a state of regular or constant change.”

Sounds about right.

Just about everything is uncertain these days. Health. Jobs. The economy. School this fall. Things change on a daily basis so there seems little in which to plant our hopes or expectations for the future. It’s hard to know what or who to depend upon—or believe. And with all the uncertainty comes a host of questions which swirl around our mind each day. Will I get sick? Will someone in my family get sick? How bad will it be? What will happen to my job—will I even keep it? What will school be like for our children this fall? And always percolating in the back of our mind is the big unknown: When will things ever return to normal?

As believers, we are not left on our own to navigate through uncertain times. While uncertainty is hard and challenging, we do have hope. We have certainty even in uncertain times.

Three Certainties for Uncertain Times

God Does Not Change: At times of uncertainty we have to return to what is true about God. We have to reminds ourselves of his character. One of God’s attributes is that he does not change. Malachi 3:6 says, “For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.“ God’s people had sinned against him but he did not destroy them because of the covenant he made with them. His promises stood firm. Theologians called this unchanging nature of God his immutability. Nothing about God can change. He can’t become less holy or righteous or merciful than he is. He can’t gain more wisdom or be more just than he already is. He won’t stop loving us or providing for us. He is the same, yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8).

In times of chaos and constant change, God’s immutability is a fixed and steady truth for us to cling to. We can trust his promises for us will stand secure. We can know his word remains forever. We can trust that who God is in his character and being is the same today as it was when he called Abram out of Ur and when Isaiah saw him seated on the throne of heaven. He is the same God who sent the eternal Son to live and die in our place. God is the same promise-keeping, grace-showering, life-giving God, today and always.

God is Sovereign: God is not surprised by all this uncertainty. He is not taken off guard or caught unawares by the chaos. He has not gotten busy with some other task in the universe and returned to find the world a giant mess. God is sovereign. He is the supreme sovereign. “…for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose’” (Isaiah 46:9-10).

The One who flung the stars across the galaxy, the One who breathed in man the breath of life, is the One who rules over all he has made. As Christians, we can take great hope in knowing that God is sovereign over all details of our lives. Nothing and no one can thwart his good plans for us. He is at work in the midst of all the chaos, confusion, and uncertainty, orchestrating all things for our good and his glory (Rom. 8:28-29).

God is With Us: Even more, God is present with us in the chaos. The meta-promise of Scripture, “I will be their God and they shall be my people” was fulfilled in Christ when he took on human flesh and lived the life we could not live and died the death we deserved. Immanuel— God with us— brought order to the chaos of this world by healing all that was broken. He reconciled us to God. There are now no barriers between us; we can come to the throne in confidence and find help and grace in our time of need (Heb. 4:16).

Before our Savior returned to heaven, he promised a Helper would come. The Spirit has come and now lives within us. The very presence of God resides in our hearts. He comforts, guides, teaches, convicts, and trains us in righteousness. God is with us! Whatever the chaos, whatever the uncertainty, whatever the unknowns, we are not alone. We are held safe and secure. No evil can threaten to undo us. Let our hearts rejoice that God is near.

This is an uncertain time. There’s no telling how long it will go on. But as believers, we are not without hope. In the midst of uncertainty, we have a certain hope in our great God who is unchanging, sovereign, and present with us. May we rest in these certainties today.

A Virus and the Idols of My Heart

C.S. Lewis once wrote, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” The recent events brought on by the Coronavirus are shouting pretty loud, wouldn’t you say?

At least it is in my own heart.

Everyone has been impacted by this pandemic in a myriad of ways: lost jobs, cancelled plans, missed friends and family, and most notably a sickness that continues to grow and spread. Children who would otherwise be in school are now learning from home. Our movements are restricted to what is most necessary. Those who are sick wait for hours to find testing and treatment. And we don’t know when it will end.

Trials such as this shine a light in the dark recesses of our hearts, revealing what we cherish most. What we love above all. What we put our hope in. What we trust in. The god that we serve.

In my own heart, this pandemic highlights my idol of control. I’m a planner at heart. I enjoy making lists and crossing them off. Next to my computer lies a list of reservations I need to make for our long-awaited family trip to Europe in May. Our epic homeschool trip. The one where we were going to follow the Allied invasion and tour battle fields from WWII. The one where we would visit the Ten Boom house we’ve been reading about in The Hiding Place. We’ve had to cancel the trip and I can’t help but feel sad.

This situation points out to me how much I trust in my plans and worship them. I rest in those plans. I find hope in those plans. And with everything in my life now cancelled, I am reminded afresh of James’ admonition: “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that’” (James 4:13-15). 

James reminds us that we don’t control the future. God does. We don’t plan our lives. God does. He wrote the story of our days before time began. It’s already etched in the annals of time and nothing can change it. He determines the plan, we live it out.

I also see this idol when my heart bristles at losing the freedom of mobility. I am a homebody and love sitting at home reading a book or working on a writing project. I don’t need to be surrounded by people all the time. But I want to stay at home on my own terms. I want to be able to determine when I come and go. I don’t like the control taken from me.

This idol also reveals itself in my fears for the future. My husband just heard his pay was cut and we worry about his job security. I find myself looking ahead and wondering what will happen if things continue for a few more weeks. A few more months. Not knowing what the future holds makes me nervous. Worried. Anxious.

No doubt, a pandemic can highlight the idols of our heart. And for myself, I am thankful that it has. It’s easy to live life as though I am the ruler of my personal kingdom. It’s easy to go about my day trusting in my plans and relying on my bank account. It’s easy to live as though I have control over my days. It takes a situation like this to remind me what is true and to point me to the One who reigns over all things.

While I don’t have control, I know who does. The One who flung the stars across the sky and spoke this world into being holds all things in his hands. He is not surprised or caught off guard by anything. He knows the end from the beginning and governs all things, from the gravity that keeps me in my chair to the speck of dust dancing across my desk. This is the real and true God. Anything else I trust in is false and counterfeit. There is nothing and no one in this world who can rescue me from the curse of sin and death but God through his Son, Jesus Christ. The eternal Son of God came to live in this sin-sick world and live a perfect life in my place. He took my sin upon him and died the death I deserve. In doing so, he freed me from looking for hope in lesser things. He freed me from looking for life in anything else but him. He opened my eyes to see that nothing else I put my hope and trust in compares to him. He alone is my refuge and my deliverer.

This truth anchors me in the current chaos.

And so, as I sit enclosed in my house and wonder what the future holds, I have to turn from the idol of control and rest in the God who controls the world. He is a good God who only does what is good. I may not know what that good will be, but I trust in the God who does. For I know I am safe in his hands.

How about you? Are you learning anything about your heart during this time?