The Best is Yet To Come

Do you remember that 10 years and one day ago, we were waiting for "the worst". The worst power outage in the history. The worst power outage that would potentially send the hospitalized into a premature death, allow unfiltered water to pass through our lips, dictate that banks lose all control of our bank accounts (mine most particularly) and our frozen Blue Bell Moolenium Crunch would become puddles of yum and ruin the hardwoods.

So what did we do? We prepared. We bought food, lanterns, batteries, dug a well, got every kind of tape imaginable, bought storage shelves for the garage, determined worst case scenarios and how we would deal with them, and took protective measures against "the worst".

We stopped just short, not by much, I might add, of hoarding and boarding up toilet paper in case of looters struck with IBS.

And then... the worst happened.

Y2K came....

....like a soft breeze in the quiet night.

No fanfare of disaster... in fact, the sick were eventually healed, we drank the tap water, Bank of America still has my accounts in order (maybe better than I do) and heaven knows we've eaten through more than a half gallon of Blue Bell in this decade.

And, shockingly, the looters never came and we are still using the same stash of toilet paper lined up in the garage on storage shelves. The problem now is, after 10 years of storage in the garage, quality has become an issue. Can you say thin and scratchy? Plus, who wants to use 10 year old toilet paper?

My point, and I do have one, is that there are things that we fear that may happen in the future but does not add a single moment to our lives. As my mom has always told us, the things we insist on worrying about, normally never happen and if they do they are never as good or as bad as we anticipate them to be.

She's a smart woman. (I hope I have picked up even a hairs breadth of her wisdom being her daughter. One should be so blessed.)

So to begin the new decade, I anticipate so many things. I hope that some of them happen. I hope that some of them don't. I believe that some of them will and some of them will not. I also trust that the things I want most in the world, will not be as good as I envision them being. I am thankful that the things I fear worst in this world, will never be as bad.

For I know the plans I have for you,

declares the LORD,

plans for wholeness and not for evil,

to give you a future and a hope.

Jeremiah 29:11 (ESV)

He was there at the beginning and He has planned out the end and here in the middle, He is orchestrating amazing things in each life He created to bring Him glory and to demonstrate His great love for us. He knows we are short-sighted and still He forgives and loves us in spite of ourselves. He sings over us as we sleep and He is prepared for the future He will bring us to and through.

As humans, we prepared for a power outage by finding items and/or procedures needed to meet our basic needs like food and water and shelter, we knew routes to take us to healthcare and how we would get there, we knew who would be there with us and we knew that we would not ever be alone.

Look at the birds of the air,

do they not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet

your heavenly father feeds them.

Are you not much more valuable than they?

Matthew 6:26 (NIV)

He cares infinitely more for us than we could ever care for ourselves and yet we still worry. Save yourself the time and energy and pour that extra into a life God has envisioned for you. It is way better than things that may or may not even happen. Take it from Mom...

Trust and believe...

the best is yet to come.