Life's A Mystery Series

James 4:13, 14 (NIV)

I’m not sure that I would want to base my theology on the words of Gilda Radner, the actress and comedienne who was part of the original cast of Saturday Night Live¸ but maybe she had a better perspective on this principle than most Christians.

I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned the hard way that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning middle and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the most of it without knowing what’s going to happen next.

- Gilda Radner

We need to learn to embrace the fact that life is a mystery. I’m convinced that if we could really do that, it would eliminate so much of the frustration and worry in our lives. When we know that life is a mystery, we don’t get so bent out of shape when things don’t go exactly the way we planned. And we don’t worry so much about what might happen or not happen tomorrow.

When Mary and I went to Kauai for our anniversary last month, I had planned in advance a romantic dinner for 2 on the beach on the evening of our anniversary. But that afternoon, it began to rain pretty consistently. Finally, just about a half hour before we were supposed to be at the beach to start our dinner, the server called to say that it was still raining, but that there was a covered area nearby that she could set up for us. And so we had dinner near the beach, not on the beach. We couldn’t have our bonfire on the beach as I had planned. And our poor server had to keep going back and forth in the rain from her vehicle where she was preparing our meals.

If we hadn’t looked at life as a mystery that evening, our special day could have been ruined. But we just went with the flow and had a very memorable evening together. I guess we did what Gilda Radner suggested and took the moment and made the most of it without knowing what would happen next.

2. God reveals as we need to know

God didn’t reveal his entire plan to bring the Jews and Gentiles together in Christ until His people were ready to understand and apply that truth in their lives. Certainly Abraham would have been completely unable to understand those details of God’s plan since Jesus wouldn’t even appear on the scene for thousands of years. So God just revealed to Abraham the part of His plan that Abraham needed to know in order to be obedient to God and fulfill God’s plan for his life.

God still works that way today. As much as some of us think we want to know exactly what the future will hold, the fact is we couldn’t handle it if we did. So God reveals as much of his plan for us each day as we need to live out our lives one day at a time. Jesus made that quite clear in the Sermon on the Mount:

Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

Matthew 6:34 (Message)

Jesus is telling us that life is a mystery that God unfolds in our lives one day at a time. God reveals to us today what we need to live our lives today. And when tomorrow comes, he’ll give us what we need then.