What I Know For Sure

Oprah Winfrey's "O" magazine used to have a column written by her at the back of the publication called "What I Know For Sure." I am using the title for this post because it just fits so well.

As you get older, you realize there is way more you don't know than what you do know. You begin to see a much bigger picture of life and knowledge than you did when you were young. As cute as the book was, entitled "All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten," it simply isn't true. Sharing our things and saying we're sorry are well and good, but there is a world of knowledge around us that can make our life and that of others in the world much, much better. There is so much I don't know, sometimes it scares me. It always humbles me.

But there are some things I do know.

I know that God is always good. His plans and timing are perfect. His will for each person is to live a productive, rich life which gives us joy and gives Him glory. He made a plan for each of us to be saved from all of our sins and live eternally in heaven with Him. He desires that not even one should perish. I know that there is more about His will that I don't know than the little I do know. I also know that He reveals things to men progressively, as we can handle it, and according to His perfect timing. Adam didn't need to understand nuclear fusion or the circuitry in cell phones. He needed to know how to live with his wife and work a garden, and he did. Noah didn't need to hear and understand about the Rapture, the Lord's "catching away" of His children before the outbreak of the Great Tribulation. He needed to know how to preach and how to build a big boat, and he did.

We don't understand everything that is happening in the world. Maybe we don't need to either. We need to know how to live for God in an evil age, with our old sin natures and a lot of turbulence around us. We need to know that God hasn't forgotten His own and will return, soon, to take us away. We need to know that His plans include judgment for those who reject Him, yes, but blessing and reward too, for those who put their trust and faith in Him alone. We need to accept that things happen in life that we cannot determine or control or even understand.

So why does a 20-year-old with his whole life in front of him, full of endless possibilities for a great future, murder his mother with her own gun, drive her car to an elementary school and shoot 26 people and then himself? Why do parents of the slain children have to make funeral plans instead of doing Christmas shopping for their little ones? Why do events like this happen?

I don't know the complete answer.

But I do know, that as our Pastor so wisely states, "We live in a fallen world where bad things happen." The further we slip from God's way and from His ideals and principles, the more often we will see these kinds of events, he says. I also know that God is still good, even when bad things happen. His love for us is still infinite and perfect and unconditional. I do know that He is gracious and has compassion on all His creation, according to Psalm 145. And I do know that He designed us to love and help each other, not to kill and destroy each other. That's what Satan does, remember? (John 10:10)

One last thing I know for sure is that we don't know everything now, but He will reveal all that we need to know in His perfect timing and by His perfect plan. And for now, I will lean on Him and trust in His goodness and lovingkindness to get me through.