Each year I write a word in the front of my bible to encourage myself to go deeper in my faith, to embrace life by casting a wider net. You'll laugh too when I share what the word is...
UNKNOWN
Ohhh well played Lord, well played! UNKNOWN, could there possibly be a year with more "unknowns" to us, any of us! Than 2020!
And then I soaked in it.
When faced with the unknown, what do I do. I seek Jesus more. I pray longer, more intentionally. I look for information to fill in the gaps. I open my circle up and invite people who may have knowledge or understanding of a situation, or activity, or whatever.
I'm an information junkie, I like to know things. My husband, not so much. He could care less how old Elvis was when he made his first record or how long it takes to walk from one end of the Pacific Trail to the other. Me on the other hand, I like to know such things!
2020 is an anomaly as there are so many questions, so many rabbit holes, so many ... nobody knows! And I soaked in this. As I've been one of those who are complainant about the virus situation. I think out loud sometimes, I'm apologizing here to my friends... and wonder if we shut everything down, locked it up for 14 days, said no Walmart, no gym, no hair salon, no liquor store, no church (oh you go right ahead and gasp, we both know Jesus will meet you and your showing roots where ever you are!) what would happen then? We don't know because we've not tried it. It has been required we were masks, it's been said to social distance, it has been asked people to limit Thanksgiving dinner guests ~ yeah right! In a year when we're hungering to see and touch family, it is recommended we don't (might I add, good luck with that).
What if, what if for 14 days you were with no one other than your immediate family? No travel, no visiting, no visitors. Oh, I can predict what would happen. The unknown!
And yet in all of the unknown, I do know this.
I have a book, which tells me everything I do need to know. I know Jesus is the same, yesterday, today, and always. I know I am protected and my needs are met. I know one day, this messed up world is going to change. I know one day Jesus is going to return and take with Him those who believed in Him.
And then there's that. I believe in the unknown. I believe and love, and walk and live in a world or unknown. I've never seen Jesus, but I know when He is near. I've never heard His voice, and yet I hear Him. He has never handed me a map, and yet I believe with all I am He directs my every step.
UNKNOWN. There is much about the unknown isn't there. I could work myself into a corner trying to pin this all together. However, I've chosen not to.
Some things, I believe I'm not meant to know. I am meant to experience, to grow through, to be stretched in, and to be educated while navigating through the unknown.
Today, as I smile looking at my word for 2020.
I do so with a silly smile as I think about how God knew before I wrote the word upon the pages what was to come. UNKNOWN. Oh boy did He know. And I believe this too, what I had envisioned to be my unknown and what God had planned, were vastly different.
And in my unknown, I'm embracing, trusting, and soaking in all that God is doing in THIS unknown season.
2020 has much to shake my head at, oh for sure. However, there have been overwhelming blessings as well, for each of them, my heart is grateful for my vision, my vision which embraced God's vision of unknown this year.
And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19
***It was totally random we were talking about - Elvis was 18 (In 1953, Elvis Presley walked into Sun Records in Memphis and recorded the song "My Happiness." He was only 18. Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi on this date in 1935. For $4, Presley was able to leave the studio with an acetate copy of the 78 RPM record, meant as a gift for his mother Gladys.)
I am planning to walk the Pacific Crest Trail, so if I wanted to get my husband on board, I needed to share with him what it entailed. I don't believe we'll walk/hike it all at once, or even altogether as from top to bottom, hiking the entire 2,650 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail takes most thru-hikers five months and the fact is, this is my thing, not his. He'd only do it because he loves me! Kind of like when I help with moving hay.