"I don't know what you're doing, but I know who you are." ~JJ Heller 'Who You Are'
It's probably safe to say that most of us are not too thrilled at sudden plot twist and constant unpredictability when it comes to our lives. Even those of us who enjoy spontaneity and adventure, crave some form of stability and predictability. At least at the most basic levels of our lives, we like to know what to expect from ourselves, others, and our environment.
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I know I do.
I think I hold tightly to this idea of stability and predictability because I have connected them in my mind with safety and confidence. I guess a lot of us have been wired this way. We've been taught to always have the answers, the solution, the explanations, and not to mention, a plan, and when we don't, we feel exposed and unsafe.
But why do we have this mentality when we are called to follow the footsteps of Jesus, if when we look at His life, it was anything but predictable? The way He lived, and the way He taught His disciples to live, goes against every idea we have about stability. He was constantly going to new places, to encounter new people, in places that were less than comfortable, all in accordance with the will of God. He also taught this same principal to His disciples, encouraging them to travel in a way that contradicts our ideas of comfort. He told them to travel without basic necessities, and also warned them that they would often be rejected(Luke 9).
We are called to follow Jesus, but we forget that the paths Jesus took were often anything but predictable and understandable.
I am by no means telling you God wants us to constantly travel without money and clothes to unknown places where people are going to reject us. What I am encouraging, is that our ideas of stability and comfort may be far from what God intended. The idea that everything has to follow a predictable and understandable pattern is not the life Jesus displayed, and it is not how He taught His disciples to live. He taught them to live by the faith that the Father had all the answers they needed. He taught them to seek Him daily, and to be ok with giving Him the authority to call them to places beyond their comfort zone. He taught them thy didn't always need a long term plan, they just needed His direction for the day before them.
I'm learning to live outside these former ideas of stability and comfort. Initially, there is nothing scarier. Right now, I don't really know what to expect from anything, from myself, others, or my environment. I don't actually know what God is doing, and beyond today, I don't always know where He wants me. It's scary, but somehow, I've never felt safer.
There is a great peace and liberation that falls on us when we realize we don't have to have the answers. Our Father has them, and that is enough.
Stability is not found in the expectations and predictability of our circumstances. It's found in knowledge that Jesus won't lead us where He doesn't go.
