Leave outcomes up to Me. Follow Me wherever I lead, without worrying about how it will all turn out.
Jesus Calling, November 19
Where I work, we have an ice-breaker question we ask everynew person joining the team: If you could have any superpower, what would itbe?
The answers, as you can imagine, vary. One colleague told usher superpower would be to become instantly dry as she stepped from the shower.My own superpower—as my fellow introverts will understand—would be to turninvisible the moment I walked into a co*cktail party.
A New Superpower
But more recently I’ve thought of a new superpower, which wouldbe this: I would want the power to know, with complete certainty, that EverythingIs Going to Be Okay.
I’m not talking about the moment-to-moment stuff. IntellectuallyI know, for example, that I’ll be okay when I’m wallowing in food poisoningmisery, curled up in a nest of towels on the bathroom floor and trying torecall what Leviticus says about shellfish.
No, I’m talking about knowing things will be okay in the longrun. Like when you’ve lost your job. Or your spouse has left you. Or when aloved one gets the terrible diagnosis. I’m talking about the moments when thefloor caves in. I’m talking about waking up and the first thing you want to dois weep.
A Familiar Conversation
When this darkness comes, I need to use a certain logictrain to pull me out. It comes in the form of a conversation that I, Conor,have with myself. This is how it goes:
“Conor, do you know with certainty that God is real?”I ask myself.
I answer with just enough sarcasm to let myself know thequestion sounded a tad condescending. “Yes, Conor, I know that God is real.Let’s move on.”
“Great, me too,” I tell myself. “And Conor, do you believethat the Bible tells the truth about Him? About His character, about what Hedid, all that?”
I nod. “Yep. I believe that the Bible reveals who God is.”
“Okay, good,” Conor says. “So does the Bible promise nothingbad will ever happen to you if you just, like, pray hard enough or readthe Bible all the time or whatever?”
I know the answer to this one. “Nope. Never promises that.”
“So what does He promise us?” Conor asks me.
That’s when I remember. He actually promises something prettyamazing: He promises that Everything Will Be Okay.
He does that in big ways, like telling us we will spendeternity with Him. He does it in little ways, too, like telling us not to worryabout tomorrow.
But you and I both know this: Sometimes just tellingus something isn’t enough. We need to be able to trust it.
It is All About Trust
If I’m late for my flight, for example, and my taxi driver callsback to me, “Don’t worry, you’ll be fine!” that’s not helpful. He’s just hopingI’ll stop freaking out in the backseat. He can’t actually control the trafficor whether we get a flat tire.
But imagine for a moment, in the backseat of that taxi, thatmy phone rings. Imagine it’s the pilot of the plane I’m trying to catch. He says, “Don’t worry, Conor. I won’t take offwithout you. You are my only passenger, and I’m in absolutely no rush. I’m notleaving until you are on board.”
I’d feel instantly relieved. Because the person tellingme it was going to be okay was the same one who could actually make itokay.
You must have gotten texts when you were in your dark place,right? Your phone buzzes on the nightstand. It’s from your sister or your momor your best friend (bless their hearts) and they’re all like, “Don’t worry,everything will be okay!” or, “I totally get what you’re feeling right now!”
The truth is, though, they don’t know if everythingis going to be okay. And they don’t know what you’re feeling right now. Theylove you, but they’re like the taxi driver—they want to you feel better, andyet they have no actual control over the situation.
Trusting True Authority
But what if you got another message? What if instead of atext, it came as a whisper from the dark? What if that voice said this: “Don’tworry. Everything will be okay. I know this for a fact. Do you want to know howI know?”
(You nod.)
“I know,” the voice says, “because I created every atom inthe universe. I’m the one who has written the past and the future. And I canteach you the secret of being content in all circ*mstances. Do you want to hearthe secret?”
(You do.)
“The secret to being content no matter what’s happening isthis: I put a supernatural strength inside of you,” says the voice. “Thestrength in you is my strength, the strength of the Creator of theUniverse. You can use that strength to crush the darkness around you and feeljoy again. You have authority over the darkness, not the other way around. Youwant me to tell you how to access that strength?”
(You nod again.)
“You only have to believe that you have it,” thevoice whispers. “You only have to remember that you have it.”
It feels unreal, right? That we have that strength toovercome the darkness? But that’s not all. He also knows what you arefeeling, which means He knows exactly how serious your situation is. And notbecause He’s observing you from His far-away throne—He knows because Jesus becamea human and got down in the muck with you.
He gave Himself emotions to feel humiliation. And lungs thatwould burn as He dragged wooden beams. And skin that would tear as He waswhipped. He gave Himself pain receptors that would scream as He was nailed to across and a human heart that was torn apart when He was abandoned by the One Heloved.
The True Superpower
None of this seems to make sense at first. Why would He simply choose to give you His strength? Why would He choose to suffer with you? It’s irrational.
Unless. Unless He was your Dad.
Now that I think about it, this is the superpower Iwould have:
I would always remember who my Father is. I would always rememberwhat He did for me. I would remember that’s the reason I can know forcertain that Everything Is Going to Be Okay. And I would think about thesethings—these things that are noble, and right, and pure, and lovely. I wouldthink about these things that are, above all, true.
You already know the ultimate destination of your journey; your entrance into heaven. So keep your focus on the path just before you, leaving the outcomes up to Me.
Jesus Calling, November 19
Conor Grennan is the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir Little Princes which shares Conor’s humanitarian work as the founder of Next Generation Nepal, a nonprofit organization dedicated to reconnecting trafficked children with their families. Conor’s latest book is The Hadley Academy for the Improbably Gifted, a middle-grade fantasy novel. Let Conor tell you all about the book on this video. He currently resides with his family in New Canaan, Connecticut.
