If you've walked with Jesus for almost any amount of time, you've become accustomed to a common theme: He doesn't share very much about what's next.
People always say: "well if I'd known that's where He was taking me, I wouldn't have gone!"
And that's just so true. For all of us, I suspect.
Even when God shares a big vision with us, we don't usually understand what it *really* means. We cannot foresee the million small steps we're about to take. And often whenever we get "there"--wherever there is--it looks quite different than we thought it would.
God just reveals one sliver at a time... just enough for us to know that if we don't move forward we're being disobedient.
But why is that? We *know* we can trust Him. We *know* He's good, faithful, kind... the absolute best Father.
Why are we always so hesitant to operate in faith even when we have a lifetime of proof that He doesn't fail?
I've come to realize that I carry the facts. Like baggage. Like lenses that color everything I see.
It's not that I'm pessimistic. Or believe that the facts can't change. Maybe that's my entrepreneurial spirit; I have a capacity to dream about what could be despite what is.
But even when I dream and dare to hope, I'm carrying the facts.
An example of this recently came about because of the government shutdown. My husband, whose paycheck we rely upon, indirectly works for the government. So furlough hit him later than most, and we've been deeply grateful for that.
But, eventually, he was informed that he'd be affected by a stop-work order.
So there I was, like so many times before: receiving news of a change; a shift in expectation; a fact.
And I had some choices about what to do with that fact. But bottom line, I have a deep belief that this fact is mine to carry. To own. To deal with.
Even though my muscle memory immediately brought it to Jesus. Even though I received His peace and His promise that He'd take care of us like He always does.
I still carried the facts.
Not with a great amount of stress or despair. Not like I did in my youth, fearful of how we'd manage.
But carrying it all the same. And so I've had to reflect on where that belief has settled. Where in my heart do I believe that facts are immovable or somehow a weight I need to drag behind me?
And here's what I'm realizing: facts are not facts to God.
I don't have to carry them. I don't have to own them.
Facts aren't facts to God. What is or will be are not shaped by what we've "proven" to be true.
God is not intimidated by facts. He is not controlled by them, hindered by them, or shaped by them.
He is the fact.
He is the beginning and the end. The Creator of all things. He speaks things into being and decides what is and is not.
Facts are nothing to Him.
Facts are ink on a page. Nothing more.
So, I have to learn that carrying facts is like carrying worry or anxiety or distrust.
It's futile.
No amount of energy I spend with a fact can change it. Only God can change those facts. He literally changed the "fact" of death. Multiple times. And for all those who believe, Jesus removed eternal death from the equation so we could be raised again to spend eternity with Him!
Can I get an amen?!
Don't hear me wrong. I know that we take part in being wise and stewarding well. We must be wise as a snake and gentle as a dove, after all (Mathew 10). We have to take our bag of money to the market. We have to be shrewd with our gifts.
And, I know there are facts we can't help but carry. Loss of a loved one. Chronic illness. Shame of something we've done or something done to us.
These are things that we cannot change. They are facts we encounter day in and day out.
And yet...
We serve a God of miracles. We serve a God that will bring us back into community with those who loved Him. A God that will restore our bodies when He returns. A God that makes the blind see and the lame walk.
Facts are not facts to God.
And facts that seem unchangeable are still not ours to carry.
Some realities are so dramatic that we have to surrender them every day. Every hour, it can seem. And some things can be simply set down once and left at His feet to deal with.
But facts are His. They are His to handle, change, judge, manage, reform, eliminate, move, or let be.And there is not telling what "proven" realities that He will change.
So, my encouragement to you is this: set down the facts and walk away in the freedom and hope that Jesus freely gives.
And I'll try to do the same.
Matthew 17:20 - “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”