Behind the Hedge of Uncertainty
Table Talk
Setting the Table
A table is a place to sit, to settle, to unwind and unload. A table can be a place as familiar as your grandma’s kitchen or as foreign and temporary as a picnic shelter at an interstate rest stop. A table can be a place to gather with family in the regular rhythms of the mundane or a place to pause and set down the weight of life’s inevitable transitions. Wherever your table is today, we invite you to have a seat.
Take a slow, deep breath in, allowing the presence of God to fill you as the air fills your lungs. Exhale and let the weight of worry, fear, and uncertainty disperse, if only for a few, these few, moments.
Like the joy of the sea coming home to shore,
May the relief of laughter rinse through your soul.
As the wind loves to call things to dance,
May your gravity be lightened by grace.
Like the dignity of moonlight restoring the earth,
May your thoughts incline with reverence and respect.
As water takes whatever shape it is in,
So free may you be about who you become.
― John O'Donohue, “For Equilibrium, a Blessing”
Philippians 4:12
I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.
Food for Thought
My wife, Sallie, and I were reflecting recently on just how crazy we must have been over eighteen years ago to do what we did. We graduated from college, and just over two weeks later we gathered with a couple hundred of our closest friends and family to get married. After a week-long honeymoon in the mountains of North Carolina and another week back in Lower Alabama, where I was building and installing cabinets to make a little money, we loaded everything we owned into the back of a U-Haul truck and drove over 800 miles to Waco, Texas, where I would begin seminary in a few weeks. We had no money, no jobs, no real prospects, and only the promise of an apartment on the rougher side of town.
Looking back, it’s nothing short of miraculous that we made it. Seriously, all we had was each other and the faith that it would all work out.
Since that move, we have moved three other times: back to our home state of Alabama after I graduated from seminary to begin my first full-time call. Then, almost four years later, to another church in Alabama. Presently, we’re just over four years deep into our most recent move, and with each one, there was all manner of uncertainty—all the more this last time, as it involved moving our two children with us.
With each move, each transition, we have learned new things about ourselves. We have learned what things are “non-negotiable” and the things about which we are able to be flexible. In the words of the Apostle Paul, we learned “what it is to have little, and...what it is to have plenty...the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need.” With each move, with each unknown factor, we learned to trust—to trust each other and, most of all, to trust God.
Of course, that trust can be difficult at times. Just as a farmer plants a field and trusts that there will be the right amount of rain and sunshine, there are those long bouts without rain and those scorching summer days that can nearly bring their world crashing down. The same is true when we find ourselves in the midst of life’s transitions, hoping for a phone call, waiting for an email, longing for an answer—and with each passing day our will wanes a bit. There’s just something about being in the midst of it, tangled up in the tendrils of time, when everything is simultaneously slow and lightening fast, when the present weighs heavy like a dense fog and the future is a wisp of smoke on the widening periphery of our hope. Trust in the midst of a major transition can be delicate.
Then again, maybe that’s how trust is forged. Maybe that’s how we come to trust in anything—especially God—anyhow.
While we may have been a bit crazy to get married right out of college and move half a country away with no real friends, jobs, or savings to speak of, it was in the midst of that craziness that our trust in each other was forged. This life can be tricky more times than not, and learning to trust God as we navigate it all is something that is learned on the fly, not solely through preparation.
Maybe you’re finding yourself in a time of transition today, with the future hidden behind a hedge of uncertainty. Maybe you’re finding your way out of the fog of a recent transition, and you’re just beginning to find your path with confidence again. Maybe you’re in a season of your life where things are pleasantly predictable, but the road to get here was full of twists, turns, and dead ends. Whatever the case, may you remember that the God of all creation, the One who set the stars on fire and the planets spinning around them, the One who has counted every hair on your head, the One who told the waves where to stop at the shore—that One is the same One who stepped into history to experience the changing of the seasons, the passing of time, the sting of loss, and the uncertainty of the future with us. And that same One, that same Christ, still moves with us through every transition and change we experience.
May you find hope, peace, and joy in the presence of Christ, even in the midst of life’s greatest transitions.
Reflect on a time in your life when things were moving, changing, transitioning in ways that left you anxious, especially not knowing what was to come. Now that you’re on the other side, can you see where God was present with you? How can you hold on to those memories, those lessons, for future transitions?
This week, take time to be thankful for all that has been before in your own life, even all of the difficult transitions and trials you may have faced. It is the sum of all that has come before that has brought you to this place, this moment.
For a printable version of today's reflection Click Here!
Blessing
Eternal God,
The One who set the stars on fire.
As we begin this new week, as we are entering a new season, help us to place our trust in you, to remember the times before when you came alongside us, so that we may face each new day and each new challenge with the hope that comes from your loving presence.
Amen.
A little Table Talk for your table...
What is it about transitions that can be so difficult, especially when we’ve lived through so many others before?
What helps you to find God’s presence in challenging times of transition?
What are some ways to prepare our hearts and our minds prior to seasons of transition? Can we ever be fully prepared? If yes, then how? If no, then what keeps us from being prepared?
Try taking it to the Kids Table...
With a new school year beginning, it’s a perfect time to discuss the challenges and exciting things that come with a new year: a new teacher, new classroom, new friends, etc.
Ask them to share a time they were really uncertain (not frightened) about something that was coming up in the future. How did they feel? How do they feel now that it’s over?
Maybe the leaves are beginning to change color, or the air is beginning to cool as the days grow shorter with the arrival of autumn. Ask your kids what those changes mean to them. What things come to mind for them as the seasons change?
Meet our Welcoming Voice!
Chris Thomas serves as the Senior Pastor of the First Baptist Church in Wilson, North Carolina. He and his wife, Sallie, are the parents of two energetic boys. Chris holds degrees from Samford University, Baylor University, and Mercer University and loves to spend time reading, being outside (especially as a beginning fly fisherman), and working with his hands. He loves telling stories, listening to stories, and sharing in the creation of stories by walking alongside others in this journey called life.
To hear more from Chris throughout the week, follow along on our Instagram!
Here are Five Things to Remember When Setting Your Own Welcome Table!