My Antidote for Uncertainty
She’s Going to Fall…
Where is she?
I can’t find my little girl.
She was here just a second ago, but now she’s gone. I hear steps and look to my left. I see her blond hair swinging as she walks toward an outside staircase.
I begin running and call out to her.
But she doesn’t hear. She keeps walking.
Up the steps she goes. I know she’ll fall.
I must run faster.
The Invisible Nets
But she reaches the top of the staircase before I do. She does indeed fall, but she is caught. She is safe.
There is a net for such occasions.
I had not known of the net. It was hidden from my view.
I feel immense relief. Such as I’ve never felt before.
And I awake.
It has all been a dream, a nightmare, really. There was more (isn’t there always more in our dreams?), but the gist has stuck with me for over 30 years ago when I first dreamt it:
God has set up multiple safety nets around us, unbeknownst to us.
God is always loving our loved ones, even when we aren’t around. Our children, anything in our care really, aren’t our responsibility alone. They aren’t loved only by us. God loves them even more than we do.
And while yes, he primarily uses us to tend to those in our care, he also uses others. Sometimes we each step up and do our part.
But sometimes we don’t.
In those times, we pray the invisible safety nets will hold.
Uncertain of What, Not Who
As I reflect this month on my One Word of the year, UNCERTAINTY, I am reminded of that dream I had when my firstborn daughter was a baby.
It has brought me great comfort in my life.
But has it not promised any guarantees.
Life still happens. And death. Many types of deaths.
Sometimes someone has cut a hole in the safety net. Or the fragile body rejects being caught. Or we crawl out of the net ourselves.
Thus, uncertainty still frightens me (I believe; help my unbelief). I still long to fully understand each mystery, to find the complete instruction manual, to flood the whole path with light instead of one step at a time.
But I’m discovering my antidote to uncertainty is not more certainty.
It’s simply trust.
Not trust in what will happen next, but trust in who will be there when it does.
I can’t know the what. But I can know the who.
As I flounder through my current season of uncertainty, I’m finding a measure of peace in knowing God throws safety nets out here. For me. For those I love. And for all those he loves, which is everybody.
Even when I can’t see him, I can see we are his safety nets of love for each other.
May we each be found safe there.
Who are your safety nets?
Share your thoughts in the comments.
Read More:
- 5 Ways to Stay Safe While Walking in the Dark
- When You’re Not Sure How God Works
- 5 Ways to Deal With Your Thousand Little Deaths
- Three of the Best Books on Writing I’ve Read This Year
- Do You Have to Spell It Out for God?
None of us knows what will happen next, do we? All we can do is trust.
This >> “My antidote to uncertainty is not more certainty.
It’s simply trust.” I drove myself crazy with the “what if’s” when our children were younger. Sometimes, I still do. But I am learning to trust Him more and more as I realize how little I can control and how faithful He is in all things.
I loved how you put this: “Not trust in what will happen next, but trust in who will be there when it does.”
That’s really the crux of the matter – do we trust in the One wwho will be there? (Because He ha promisd to never forsake us.)
Lisa what a blessed lesson. “ uncertain of what, not who.” So true.
Lisa, I think this is the lesson God has been teaching me this year too. I don’t have to know the why’s and how’s. God is already there. He’s orchestrating situations. And, as you shared, He’s created safety nets we can’t see.
When we choose to trust Him in the middle of the hard, the pain, the uncertainty, that’s when we can know peace. Such a hard choice. Sometimes, it’s moment-by-moment for me.
What a teaching dream!
I remember thinking of God’s protection as a membrane around us, and the first time a close friend was subjected to intense suffering it was as if the membrane had ruptured and horror rushed in. He doesn’t always protect us from bad things, but he is faithful throughout,
Beautiful post, thank you. I used to have lots of nightmares when our son was small — he would just disappear. You give me an important truth: the Lord doesn’t just love me — he loves those I love too, and He loves them more than I can.
The Lord is my safety net — of course! — but a safety net I scorn too often. Met my next-door neighbour on the way home from work today and he gave me his litany of theories about the covid vaccines (they give you heart attacks, they are fake, they don’t work, … what is really going on with this incoherent rant? But I am the same).
It has been a privilege and an inspiration to follow your adventure with Uncertainty this year.
What a great reminder! and I love that image. Makes me so grateful for times I am caught and didn’t even know the danger. Happy Thanksgiving, Lisa
I love this post Lisa! Thank you for sharing it with us. It’s very poignant in our concern for our precious loved ones.
What we don’t often see is the network of safety nets God has under the ones we can see! ?
Bless you,
Jennifer
This is profound, Lisa, especially for people like me who always want to know how the story ends. Not trusting in what happens next, but in the One who will be there when it happens. Yes and amen!
I’m so thankful for that invisible safety net or hedge of protection as the Bible refers to it around each of our loved ones. He is faithful to watch over and protect.
Wow. What a dream! Yet what a lesson therein! Thank you for sharing it. It’s so easy for us to imagine that having certainly would provide just what we need, isn’t it? Thanks for the nudge to shift our thinking.
Thanks so much for joining the Grace at Home party at Imparting Grace. I’m featuring you this week!
I absolutely loved this post, Lisa. Such a strong message about trusting God not just with our lives but the lives of those we love. And your line: ‘My antidote to uncertainty is not more certainty’ struck a chord deep within me.
Thank you – I’m learning so much from you.