We like to plan. Yes, even when we say we’re not “big planners,” we enjoy a having general knowledge about what the next stage of life will be like. And what happens when our plans don’t seem like our own anymore? When we no longer have the security, perhaps a false one, of knowing the next step or what it will look like? To be honest, my first tendency is to…question my success – I do that even before I worry. Why do I question my success? Because I often wonder how other people will perceive my role and how meaningful is what I am doing. Because I want to know that I won’t fail in the next stage. Because my view of my plans is so very shortsighted and, of course, I have no control of the unknown. However, this kind of thinking when it comes to change and not knowing what that change will bring is pointless – pointless because my aim should not be to know my future but to know the God of my past, my present, and my future.
Our months after coming back from Italy have been ones of constant change and wondering what the next stage will be like. We loved Italy and my heart wanted so desperately to be back there. Right after we came back, we spent our summer in a very different setting and completely new for me: Mountain Top Youth Camp in North Carolina. The change was inevitable. In a very short time, I had to learn new words, understand new interactions, and meet new people. Unknown scenarios and rapid change are hard and uncomfortable at first, but then I started to see the beauty of what I was being a part of when I focused less on knowing how to do every new thing right and more on knowing the God of my past, my present, and my future.
After that summer, a month of unexpected traveling and visiting friends came. We enjoyed it so so much even if it meant changing places almost every week. From beaches to cities, from mansions to cozy apartments, from lakes to mountains, from camping to biking…it was all exciting. That’s what change can be as well, exciting! And it can also connect us deeply to people that had been in our past and now are even more meaningful in our present. In all, we saw a God who wants us to be at rest in the midst of change so that we can enjoy what He is doing and get to know Him more as the God of our past, our present, and our future.
And finally, our present. Here in North Carolina, I have seen with fresh eyes what God does in and through the lives of people. The new friendships we have made have been so precious. People have loved us in such genuine and practical ways. In other words, after moving and moving around, changing to being still for a month has taught us that a piece of our heart can be in many places. After all, what has seemed like a year of an unexpected turn of events so far, seems more and more like a sequence of purposeful transitions. Because change is in His hands, change is good. And the future? No need to worry about it, because even if it’s unknown we know it’s directed by the faithful One that never changes, the God of our past, our present, and our future.
“The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord;
he turns it wherever he will” (Proverbs 21:1)
-Paola A.
Café for 4 