When Life Takes a Turn

08/26/2007

Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. James 4:14 (NIV)

Have you ever been heading in one direction, and suddenly life takes a turn, and all that you thought and hoped for disappears like mist in the morning sun? Who can know the ways of God? Who can figure out why things happen as they do, and are we supposed to? Or are we simply to say, “Thy will be done.”

It seemed as I read through the Book of Daniel this morning, that Daniel came to a point on his journey with God where he questioned what was to happen, what was to come, and God’s answer to him was, “Go on about your business.” In another translation it says, “Go your way, Daniel.” (Daniel 12:8)

What was Daniel’s way, or business? Was it to accept what the Lord had shown him many times over in his dreams about the end of the world--and not worry about it, not fret about it, not try to control any of it because it was beyond what he could comprehend, really? After years of faithful obedience to his Lord, because Daniel was over 90 by this time, he was told to “Go your way.” Interesting…

And if we’re called to do the same, it doesn’t mean we’ll have all the answers for everything, but it does mean that we can focus on God, ask Him, listen to Him, and if He does have anything to whisper to our hearts, we will be ready to hear it.

From high in the skies God looks around, he sees all Adam's brood. From where he sits he overlooks all us earth-dwellers. He has shaped each person in turn; now he watches everything we do. Psalm 33:13 (The Message)

What are any of us to do with life when there is a huge turn in the road that we don’t understand? We are to trust that God is watching, and go our way, living wisely and well in this world until Jesus comes back!

Easier said than done, that’s for sure! Jesus was called to the most difficult task of all, to go to the Cross and die for our sins. We too have our difficult “tasks” on this earth. That is not to be denied, but to be understood. When we say, “Thy will be done,” it can scare us, hurt us, confuse us, and seem to destroy everything that we have planned--but the results of our obedience to continue to believe in our God through it all can only be described as miraculous. Jesus has made a way for all of life not to eat us up alive. It goes beyond what we can really even begin to understand or fully explain.

How can we understand the road we travel? It is the Lord who directs our steps.
Proverbs 20:24 (NLT) It may not make sense, but in knowing God, we can know that the power of the lions’ den will never be greater than the power of our Mighty God! Daniel trusted God and found that to be true…and we can do the same, even today.