My Friend, You Did Not Create the World.

My friend,

It's been a long while since I've written. Let me just say that junior year of college hits like a freight train going at full speed with no warning horns. 

Rumor on the street is that people are already asking you what lies beyond graduation. Crazy right? We have a whole year and some before that. 

But we're constantly wondering what lies before us, aren't we? Asking ourselves a million times a day how the decisions we make now will affect us later on.

Where will I be in two years, five years, ten years? What city, what state? What will my career be, where will I live? What relationships will I have? Will I be financially stable? Will I be happy? Will I have friends? Will I be married? 

It's mind boggling how much time we spend worried, concerned, anxious about the next steps. 

My friend, we get into the terrible habit of getting caught up in our worries and our anxieties and instead of going before the Lord and asking for peace and for clarity, we let these worrisome thoughts sit and fester in our hearts. 

And all that festering leads to hardening of our hearts. 

It leads to bitterness. It leads to angry words that we don't mean.

It leads to being frustrated and so angry when the Lord closes another door that you planned on being open. 

So my sweet friend, I want to be candid and remind you of a few things on this Monday.

First of all, you need to remember who it is who controls the world. 

And let me give you a little hint, it isn't you. 

One of my favorite examples of this comes from the end of the book of Job, where God responds to Job's pleas for answers with more questions. (If you haven't read the book of Job, you should, but basically Job is a righteous man who is tempted and tried beyond belief. By the end of the book he just wants some answers of what is going on.)

In Chapter 38, God responds to Job in a whirlwind (casual) by asking some pretty deep questions.

"Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?" Job 38:4

"Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb, when I made clouds its garnet and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors and said "Thus far shall you come, and no father, and here shall your proud waves be stayed?" Job 38:8 -11

"Can you send forth lightenings that they may go and say to you,  Here we are?" Job 38:35

"Did you give the horse his might? Do you clothe his neck with a mane?" Job 39:19

"Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high?" Job 39:27

If you're unclear, Job did not lay the foundation of earth. He didn't shut in the sea, or design how a horse would look or function. He couldn't send lightening or command Eagles. 

But what God is reminding Job is that He was there, He did these things, and He knows what Job is going through and the purposes behind it.

He is a God of mysteries. Some that we understand and some that we do not.

But He is also a God who does not make mistakes.

He didn't with Job. He doesn't with us.

We also like to think we laid the foundations of the earth. We love to put our plans first, to determine what will happen, when it will happen, how it will happen. 

But did we lay the foundations of the earth? Do we know the plans for the world? Do we understand how our pieces of the life puzzle connect in the grand scheme that makes up the world? 

No, my friend. 

We don't.

But God does. He created the world. He laid the foundations, He put the stars in the sky, He know the dwelling place of light and the place of darkness, He created the rain and the ice and the snow. He made the deserts to be dry and the seas to be wet.  

Don't you think that a God who did all this knows what job you'll have in 6 months? Two years?

Don't you think that this God that commands eagles where to build their nests and provides lions with the right prey knows where you will be living after graduation? 

And my friend, if we believe that it is God who created the world... If we trust in His grace through His son Jesus, If we know that He leads us in paths designed for His glory and our good.. Then why can't we remember all those times He faithfully provided for us in the past?

Each time that a door closed and we thought there can be nothing better that comes our way.. and something does.

Each time we thought that we cannot make it any farther and this was it.. and He gave us the strength to keep going. 

Each time we questioned if God meant to put us in this position, because we just don't think we can make it any farther.. and He showed us.

He has been there, if we only take time to remember.

We can take a lesson from David who said in Psalm 143:5, 

"I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands. " 

And the beauty is that each time we ask, "are you sure Lord?",  He faithfully provides us with an answer.

Not exactly in a whirlwind through the Socratic method, but in ways that only He can. 

And not always right away, when we want the answer. But through studying scriptures, and prayer, and seeking wise counsel.. through His mysterious ways that we cannot understand He provides an answer. 

So my friend, stop overanalyzing. Stop worrying about five years down the road and concentrate on enjoying the present. I'm not saying don't dream about the future or make plans to prepare yourself, no you should. 

But don't take on this anxiety without seeking the Lord, without taking time to remember He control the world and He has been so incredibly faithful in the past.

And may your prayer be like Job's response to God's questions.

"Then Job answered the Lord and said:
I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know." Job 42:1-3

So friend, (let's be real, so Alana) take heart. The Lord knows what we don't. And that's okay. 

He has a pretty good track record. Perfect in fact.

His purpose, not my plans, right?

Love,

Alana 

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And because I can, here are some favorite pictures from the the most challenging, most rewarding, most busy, most joyful year yet.