When the Answers Don't Come

Have you ever heard the saying, “It will all be okay in the end, so if it’s not okay, it’s not the end?” I love this.  It goes right along with Romans 8:28 “All things work together for our good…” If you’ve lived long enough to have weathered life’s storms, you have clung to this belief, even if you didn’t know the Spiritual reference for it.  Somehow, someway… It’s all gonna be alright.

It’s in that place, however, in the waiting, where we get tossed around a bit.

We have faith.  We know God is for us.  Yet, there are things swirling around us that we simply can’t understand how and why it could be so.  Challenges come in all sorts of forms.  Relationally, emotionally, financially…. We all have them.  We are not immune. When we are in a season where everything is going well, we think it will last forever.  But that is just not how life works.  We walk in the valley as much as the mountain top.

How do we maintain hope when we are doing all that we know how to do, and the answers to our problems don’t come as easily as we would like?  I grapple with this a lot.  

God tells us to be still and to know that He is God, and that with Him all things are possible.  When I find that my heart and mind are racing, when it feels as though there is no rhyme or reason to the issues that burden my spirit, I have to sink into this knowing that He is always at work.  

One of the hardest things to do is to surrender.  I am a fighter, a doer, a mom… I am used to making things alright for the people that I love and care about.  And, if there is a fall that happens, at the very least I will be at the bottom of the pit, ministering as best I can to those who need me.  

I am finding, though, that there is so much that I cannot do.  I can’t take away the ache of hurting hearts.  I can’t answer why good people are challenged with illness or life issues that they did not deserve.  I can’t take away injustice, or lay offs, or hardships that realign our realities and reshape our lives.

I can only rely on what I have come to know, what keeps me afloat in these times — God is good.  He will make a way.  It’ll all be okay in the end.

I don’t think we are meant to know how things are going to mend.  We are not created to know who will come into or out of our lives.  We aren’t endowed with the understanding of where our resolutions will come.  We only can know from Whom they will.

We are to wait on Him.  To trust Him. To have courage.  To know that He is with us and that He knows the end from the beginning.

It’s hard to trust when you feel like you are walking in the desert and alone.  It’s hard to stand with your arms open wide, ready to receive, and yet feel empty while waiting for what has yet to come.

My faith journey began when someone many years ago called from out of the blue to say “I have a Word for you.  I was walking and praying, and for no reason at all, God said ‘Call them and give them this Word - Proverbs 3:5-6.  Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.’”

At that time, all was well.  Our season was full and happy and vibrant.  But God knew what I could not.  The seed of this Word was planted deep within my soul.  And from it, my faith grew so that I could hold onto it when the shaking came. 

I don’t know where you are in life.  I don’t know what hurts you or challenges you or keeps you up at night.

I only know that God does.  I know that He has a plan, an answer, a promise to work it all out for you.  Give it to Him.  Stand in the knowing that He is working all things out for your good.

Surrender to Him the acceptance that you are not in control, He is.  

It’s not the end.  You are just in the gap of waiting for your answer to come.

It will.  

And it will be okay.

Hold on.