Are you looking for something more in the new year? I think most of us are in one way or another. This past year has been a rough one both personally and globally for many. I can’t say I’m sad to see 2024 go. Between health-related issues and hurricanes, it’s been quite the challenge.
Yet, if I’m totally honest, every year has its ups and downs—its blessings and curses. This is the human condition since the beginning of time. Good and bad travel in parallel like rails on a train track. They cannot be separated one from the other. How am I to navigate this roller coaster ride of life that threatens to throw me from my seat? I too am looking for something more to guide me on this journey.
So, I went searching in my library (and I do have a veritable library in my home) for a special book I came upon many years ago—Something More by Catherine Marshall. At the time I first read it, the book was twenty years old. Now it’s in the 50th year since publication but remains as relevant today as when Catherine first penned it.
I had forgotten why this particular book moved me so much but as I reread the first chapter, it came back to me like a flood and brought tears to my eyes. I was looking for something more then as I am now. These words had acted like a catalyst when I was in my early 30’s, changing the way I thought about God and my relationship with Him. How had I let their effect slip away over the years without even realizing it?
But old ways of thinking are difficult to fully shake even after revelation shows them to be false.
It is my nature (and probably human nature) to try to understand the reason behind everything that happens in life—the cause and effect. And, if I don’t understand or circumstances don’t make sense, I feel angry and resentful. This sends me to a dark place leading me to question the goodness and motivation of God.
Job did the same and he brought his anger to God demanding He tell him why bad thing were happening to him. But God never answered why all the calamity befell Job. God showed Job His power and sovereignty. Only we (the readers) know from the Biblical account that God allowed Satan to torment Job.
God controls all that happens in our world. He is in everything—both good and bad. Yes, we exist with a free will and the consequences of our choices. However, evil cannot befall me or those I love unless God allows it. This is a difficult concept to accept and still angers me at times.
Why, Lord, did you allow this fractured ankle and all the isolation that came with my recovery? Why did you allow my mother to develop Alzheimer’s? She was such a vibrant, loving person and now she’s constantly confused. Why did you allow the hurricane to wash away the hopes and dreams of so many in Appalachia? What good is there in any of these circumstances?
But there’s the rub. In my limited experience, like Job, I can’t visualize the big picture. I only see my little piece of the whole. Yet God sees it all.
If I truly believe God is my Father and Jesus is my Savior, I must trust they are intricately involved in my life and have my best interest at heart. Both the good and the bad work together in concert to achieve the desired result in the long run.
Catherine Marshall writes that the key to our walk with the Lord is relinquishment and praise. When looking for something more, we must relinquish our need to understand the why and praise God in everything as we wait and watch for the good to come out of our struggles.
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NKJV
We must give praise just as Corrie Ten Boom thanked God for the fleas with her sister, Betsie, in her book The Hiding Place. She had no idea at the time that the fleas were keeping the guards away, allowing them to minister to the other prisoners in the concentration camp. Their impact had eternal consequences.
Daniel Quaye didn’t understand why his papa praised God for the incessant monsoon rains in my novel, The Enemy Between Us. Only much later, did he realize the rebels couldn’t travel in the muddy conditions which kept the whole family safe for a time during the Liberian Civil War.
Both Corrie and Daniel eventually saw the big picture of what God was doing in their story. But sometimes we never know why God allows some bad things in our lifetime. That is knowledge reserved for heaven.
In this new year, Lord, I’m looking for something more in my walk with You. Help me relinquish control and praise you in and through all of life’s blessings as well as it’s difficulties. As a good Shepherd, guide me along right paths in this new year for Your name’s sake. I don’t need to know all the why’s. I just need to know You and Your abiding love to sustain me through whatever circumstances come my way in 2025 and beyond.
Fig trees may no longer bloom, or vineyards produce grapes; olive trees may be fruitless, and harvest time a failure; sheep pens may be empty, and cattle stalls vacant—but I will still celebrate because the Lord God is my Savior. The Lord gives me strength. He makes my feet sure as those of a deer, and he helps me stand on the mountains.
Habakkuk 3:17-19 CEV
