When "no answer" is your answer

Photo credit: abstract

Sometimes we so desperately want an answer. "Why did this happen to me?" "What do I do now?" "What is the plan here God, because I'm surely not seeing the full picture?!" 

Don't get me wrong, it's good to ask. God is a god who speaks and that of course is the basis of our relationship, but sometimes He also needs to protect us from ourselves. We are indeed very complicated beings and if we are really honest, very often our own worst enemies. 

We all have different pasts, biases, likes, dislikes, fears and insecurities. Then mixed in the equation is our fast paced culture. We get everything now, on the move, fresh, hot and comfortable. We sometimes forget that patience really is a virtue and that Rome wasn't built in a day.

Our impatience, quite unnecessarily, often leads to frustration or anger, when the answer is quite simple, "now just isn't the right time".

I realised again this morning, that even though the storm rages on, there is one who has the answer, there is one who is not freaking out the way that I do, who is always stable and secure. One who knows what He is doing and maybe in that moment instead of asking for an answer or an explanation of the full picture, I should rather ask for peace, joy and a love that overflows. 

The fact that He is not providing me with an answer does not mean that He doesn't hear or that He doesn't care, but merely that He is unfolding a plan larger than I can comprehend and by telling me the detail it will distract me from what I need to do now, which is nothing but rest, wait and trust. He doesn't need me to know the answer and then think ahead, worry or tell Him that He's crazy. He sometimes needs to protect me from myself and my primitive way of thinking.

This reminds me  of a quote that someone special once gave me, I paraphrase, but it goes something like this:

"Sometimes God calms the storm and sometimes He lets the storm rage and calms His child."

In the years that I have been walking with God, He has never once turned His back on me, never once left me, never once took His love from me and never once gave me any reason whatsoever to doubt Him. This brings me to a place where I can confidently say that no matter where you are or how deep you're  in, in the middle of the storm, that is where Love will find you...