Getting engaged has been a lot like graduating high school.
You’re probably thinking that’s a very strange correlation.
Allow me to explain.
During my senior year, almost every person I had a conversation with, be it a relative or a stranger, seemed to ask me the same series of questions. It was like they all got together and shared a script. Maybe you’re familiar with the questions. They went something like this:
“What are your plans for after you graduate?”
“Are you going to go to college?”
“What are you interested in doing?”
As someone who liked to have a plan, cared greatly about what people thought, but didn’t know what I was going to do, those questions haunted me.
During this season of engagement, I’ve been reminded of that feeling. The not knowing. The caring. The frustration.
“What are your plans for after you get married?”
“Where are you going to live?”
“Are you going to keep your job?”
“What kind of home do you want to move into?”
I know most people ask because most people care, but sometimes after I hear those questions, the haunting feeling returns.
And just like I realized in high school,
once again the Lord is teaching me-
I don’t have it all figured out.
I wish I did. I wish God would drop the blueprints for my life through a portal from heaven so I’d know exactly what to do and when.
(I talk about that in this post)
But God doesn’t work like that.
You see, we weren’t meant to have it all figured out.
Because if we had it all figured out, that would leave no room for the great unknown and the sweet and supreme, sovereign and secure, mighty will of God.
Proverbs 3:5-6 says,
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”
God doesn’t call us to trust ourselves, our abilities, or our understanding. He doesn’t call us to trust our spouses or parents or mentors abilities or understanding either.
He calls us to trust HIM.
And by trusting him, looking to him in the confusion.
And by looking to him, following him.
Most of us at some point in our lives struggle with the unknown of the future, of our jobs, of our schooling, relationships, finances…
Sometimes it can keep us up at night because “so and so” has it all figured out and we don’t.
Allow me to let you in on a little secret:
So and so doesn’t have it all figured out and if they do they’re either bluffing or in for a big surprise.
Because we weren’t made to have it all figured out. Rather, we were made to be dependent on the only one who does. We were made to be desperate for Jesus.
Psalm 37:23-24 says,
“The LORD makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand.”
People are constantly asking questions, whether you’re graduating high school, getting engaged, having kids, or somewhere in between.
Let them ask.
No matter what they tell you, they don’t have it all figured out.
No one of us do.
We weren’t meant to.
