Look... and be amazed!

I love getting mail. It doesn't matter what kind of mail it is -- from a friend, family member, an advertisment, or even a student loan bill -- if I've got something personally mailed to me in MY name, I feel special. I'm sure it's the same for most all of us. We feel this need to be known. We don't feel accepted at work until our coworkers get to know us. We don't have a close friend or group of friends until they've had the chance to know us. It's who we are, what we do, and how we were created. To love, and to be loved. To know, and to be known.

We all have this curiousity in us that drives our lives. We want to know where we're going to college, what kind of job we need, how much money we'll make, who we're going to marry, how many children we'll have, when we're going to retire, how many friends we'll have, when our parents will pass away, where we're needed, who needs us, why we feel alone, who is taking care of us when we get older, how much we'll spend on gas, groceries, and, I mean, the list could literally go on forever! We are just driven to know it all.

Well, okay... I am driven to know it all! Not a day goes by that I don't sit and wonder how my life will turn out. I've got plans for my life -- big ones and small ones -- but it's so hard for me knowing that all of these are uncertain. I used to think life would be so much easier if God would send me a little letter in the mail with an entire list of the things I was going to accomplish in my life. And after being frustrated time and time again, I didn't even care about what would be in the letter -- just that I would be able to know how my life would turn out. It made perfect sense that God should do this for me.

Then I came across a verse so powerful that I can't stop thinking about it. Habakkuk 1:5 "Look at the nations and watch -- and be amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe even if you were told." In the verses right before the Lord speaks, Habakkuk is questioning if God is on his side. One of those, "God where are you right now? Do you even know what you're doing? Why can't I know everything?" kind of comments, ya know? And then the LORD speaks.... Habakkuk, you've got it all wrong! I've got things taken care of, and even if I did tell you how things would pan out, it's so amazing and wonderful that you wouldn't believe it! I mean, if that's not the beauty of God, then what is?! So no matter how many goals we set or how much we want to know or what we plan for our lives, even those things are far less than what God actually has in store for us!

"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us. To Him be the glory in the church, and in Christ Jesus, throughout all generations forever and ever, amen."