These gods were believed to live just above the sky and were always observing puny humans on earth from their lofty position above.Most of the Old Testament saints thought of their god in the same way.Tribal gods were believed to be in competition with other tribal gods.Almost every tribe or group of people had at least one god.I am not anticipating the coming I-Don’t-Knows but trusting what I know of God’s great love. I know all the events beyond that curtain have been placed there by him for my good. I know he has loved me with the precious life of Jesus. I have absolutely no clue what is waiting for me behind that imperceptible veil. In just a little bit, a wonderfully kind person at Baptist Hospital in downtown Jacksonville is going to push me on a stretcher through the curtain clouding my future. We can trust him when the I-Don’t-Knows remain. We may not know what is coming, and in this life, we may never understand all that has happened. But we are comforted with abundant clarity about the character of the One orchestrating those unseen events. In life, we face constant confusion and curiosity about the events waiting behind the curtain, concealing the future from us. He removes the I-Don’t-Knows of his character while allowing the I-Don’t-Knows of life to remain. A vision of God’s love in Christ fueled John’s confident faith. John couldn’t see his coming future any more than you or I can, but he could look back and see God’s heart of love revealed in Jesus. God is love.” John had confident hope in the character of God because of Jesus, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9). That’s why what 1 John 4:16 says is so important, “We have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. ![]() We would trust and depend on what we knew was coming. If God told us what was coming, he knows we would fix our hope on our knowledge of the future. In his Word, the Bible, God tells us a few things about the future, but most of his personal words to us are about his character. He has planned them, knows them, and could share them if he wanted. God has countless I-Don’t-Knows stacked behind that thick curtain shrouding our futures. I-Don’t-Knows fill up your future and cloud your understanding of the past. Your daughter died in a tragic accident, the bank foreclosed after you got laid off, your husband walked out, your car broke down, your friend stabbed you in the back, your child turned from the Lord, your boss hated your presentation. Your problems may be easier or worse than mine, but I-Don’t-Knows characterize your life too. But every surgery before this one was supposed to do that. Today, staring down the barrel of surgery number five, I’d like to think it will fix my neurological woes. I didn’t know my neurosurgeon’s plan was for me to recover from surgery in a neuro-intensive care unit. ![]() My plan this weekend was to go on a date with my wife, see my older kids off to prom, watch a movie with my youngest son, and preach a sermon on Acts 7. I didn’t know I would learn that season is ongoing during the very week of the book’s release. I intended the publication of my book, The Great Love of God, to mark the end of this season of surgical suffering. I had brain surgery in the fall of 2020 and thought it would be my last. ![]() Recently, I’ve experienced some massive I-Don’t-Knows. The I-Don’t-Knows of the past are confusing when we don’t understand them. The I-Don’t-Knows of the future are alarming because we can’t see them. We often look back on the I-Don’t-Knows of the past and find they are still unclear to us. More frustrating is how frequently those future I-Don’t-Knows remain unclear once we experience them and move them to our memories. Those I-Don’t-Knows are numerous, quite humbling, and often painful. All that stuff we cannot see are the coming I-Don’t-Knows.Ī mysterious curtain hangs just beyond this immediate present moment shielding our gaze from endless I-Don’t-Knows. When we try to look ahead beyond the immediate flash of the present, we can’t see a thing. There are never guarantees about what is coming. ![]() But guesses are not facts, and likelihoods are not certainties. Sometimes we have good guesses about what the future holds. We never know what those moments will bring. Our future moments are everything beyond the present flash of lived experience. Our knowledge of those past moments comes only after the fact. Once that flash is complete, it instantly becomes the past. Life happens in a flash of the immediate present. That surprise is a reminder that so much of life is found in all we do not know. On Tuesday, my doctor said he wanted to do the surgery today-Friday. On Sunday, I announced my need for a fifth brain surgery and thought the operation was weeks away.
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