“Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed.”Joshua 23:14

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards” – Soren Kierkegaard.

“For we live by faith, not by sight.”  2 Corinthians 5:7

I’m not particularly good at puzzles or mazes.  When our family was in quarantine a few weeks ago, a friend dropped off some 500- and 1,000-piece puzzles to help us pass the time.  Pam, Justin & Katelyn dug right in, but my participation was limited to turning the upside-down pieces right side up, separating out the edges and then ceremonially putting in the last piece once the puzzle was complete. I look at that pile of pieces and know that it makes a beautiful picture.  But I sure can’t see it.

One fall our family went to a corn maze- 12 acres of twists, turns and dead ends. In the center was a 3-story scaffolding tower where employees with walkie-talkies stood ready to rescue directionally challenged people who were hopelessly lost.  All you had to do was raise the little bicycle flag they gave you at the entrance.  Well, I was too proud to raise the flag, but if it weren’t for the kids, I think we’d still be wandering around in there.

Sometimes life is like that.  It doesn’t make sense until after you’ve lived it and then look back. That was Joshua’s testimony in the Bible.  He had lived through some chaotic stuff in his 110 years. He’d seen slavery in Egypt and God’s mighty deliverance through the Red Sea.  He experienced the pain and struggle of the wilderness and the joy of crossing the Jordan into the promise land. On the battlefield, he witnessed both spectacular successes and catastrophic failures. And yet, as he stands at the end of his life, he can look back over it all and say, “God has never failed me… not even once.” What he couldn’t see in the moment, he could see later on.

Have you ever experienced that? I know I have.  You get through a particularly hard season in life or a set of difficult circumstances and you think, “Wow, where was God in THAT big mess!?” or “What in the world is God doing now?” In the moment, you feel confused, questioning, and even a bit angry. You pray and pray and pray, and nothing seems to ever change. But then, down the road, maybe years later, you look back and see how God sustained you the whole time or even how it fits into the overall plan of your life.  Nothing is wasted.  God had a purpose. Although, I’m not at the end of my life, yet (I hope!), I’ve lived long enough to realizes that God is there even when I don’t see him. And he’s working even when life comes crashing down around me. And in my weakest and most faithless moment?  He’s completely trustworthy and wholly faithful.

I think this is particularly important to recognize right now.  Our world’s a mess.  A lot of what we used to think of as solid has shifted.  Many Christians feel unrooted and disconnected. We don’t know what “normal” will look like, or even if it will ever get here.  Morality and ethics are being redefined daily. And will I be wearing a mask a year from now, two or three?  I take great comfort in knowing that one day I will look back on 2020 and 2021, with all of its uncertainty, and say to my kids, or grandkids, “You know, even in that really tough time, God was faithful.  He was true to his promises and never failed… not even once.”

So, here, in the moment, right now, when we feel buffeted by the winds and waves of change and uncertainty, keep a few things in mind. First, it is not a lack of faith to feel unrooted and not understand or even to not see how God is working. That’s just a part of being human.  God’s plan and purposes are not always easily seen or understood in the moment. So, don’t beat yourself up if you just “don’t get it” right now. Instead, take comfort that the day will come when you will look back, either in this world or the next and say, “Now I see what God was doing.” Part of walking by faith and not by sight is resting in God’s Providence and by faith claiming that one day, we too will be able to testify:

You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed.” Joshua 23:14