Life is fundamentally unpredictable, and so we cannot be certain about what is going to happen next. And although uncertainty is, in a sense, a blessing in it allows for freedom and change, at the same time, it can feel like a curse. The future is unknown and how can we be sure that what we possess—health, material wealth, loving relationships and family members will not be taken away from us by natural causes, accidents, diseases, or evil? And because of the inevitability of death, we tremble at the face of the unknown ahead of us. We are aware that at any time, and certainly, at sometime we will die. In fact, the very next moment we die will be the next moment.
In order to feel secure, we are constantly trying to control life by creating outcomes that might fit our expectations. Yet, the only thing we might achieve is to create a state of anxiety that prevents us from savoring the here and now, the present moment, which is a gift that God gives us. If we believe that true happiness is the result of a future void of disappointment and pain, then we are a people without hope chasing after the stars! The reality is we are all going to experience suffering and death. Outside of a relationship with our Creator through Jesus Christ, we have no hope of a life lived in the midst of pain and loss or a life lived beyond this one that transcend the pain, suffering and death here.
To avoid living in a state of anxiety, we must give up the idea that we can somehow control events and people, and factor in the unexpected and embrace uncertainty and flow with the wild current of life. And trust that we have a God that holds all our tomorrows in His loving hands and, while He doesn’t promise them to be pain-free, He does promise His grace to sustain us in them.
Here’s a metaphor about embracing disappointment, rather than fighting against it.
There was a horse that ran away. That evening all the neighbors came out to commiserate with him over his bad luck. He said this. “May be.”
The next day the horse returned, but brought with him six wild horses, and the neighbors came excited over his good fortune. He said, “May be.”
And then, the following day, his son [who] tried to ride one of the wild horses, was thrown and broke his leg. Again, the neighbors came to offer their sympathy about the misfortune. He said, “May be.”
The day after that, army officers came to the village to induct all the able bodied young men into the service, but because of the broken leg, the farmer’s son was rejected. When the neighbors came to say how fortunately everything turned out, he said, “May be.”
What’s the moral of the story? Sometimes bad things happen and they turn out to be good things. We never know what cards will be dealt to us, how that hand will be played out and what the end will look like, except for this one little, but very important detail, but God. “But God, who is rich in his mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) …” Ephesians 2:4-5. No matter what you encounter in life you have a “but God!”