Faithfulness is our Best Yes

Do you remember the Choose Your Own Adventure books from our childhood? I used to spend many summer days curled up on my beach towel with the sun splashing about me, engrossed in choosing the adventure of the main character. I loved weaving the plot, maneuvering around obstacles and life and death situations. I longed to chose the best path for their journey, finding happiness when I brought the character safely to the end.

Yet, in most ways, our life is not a choose your own adventure. While we do measure and weigh massive decisions in the scales of our minds, and then execute these decisions, more often than not we are Sovereignly handed our adventure, without a say in it at all. 

I was diagnosed with a liver disease early on in my first pregnancy. Over time my liver slowly shut down due to the pregnancy hormones, as the liver bile backed up in my blood. At night I lay awake itching my ankles and feet until I was cut and bleeding. Clothes felt unbearable. I pushed my air conditioning down to 60F and wrapped myself in a cotton sheet when I needed to make dinner. Slowly I turned yellow. Confused at God’s sovereignty, I wondered why my body would rebel, fighting against the exciting next step of our journey. 

Our stories are never identical, but stories always rhyme. Like me, I’m certain God’s sovereignty has left you confused at times. Like me, I’m sure you have found yourself standing in the swirl of an adventure you never chose, while you wondered at it’s rebellious nature.

Unfaithful spouses. Infertility. Tragic accidents. Jobs lost. Defiant children. Premature deaths. Miscarriages. Tragic diagnoses. The list goes on and on.

Abraham and Sarah (Genesis 12-25) are heralded as hero’s of the faith, yet it is clear that God’s sovereignty left them confused also. Called out from his home and away from his people, God reiterated His promises to Abraham time and time again. Look to the stars in the heavens, so many shall your offspring be. Kings and nations will come from you. Your people will possess this land. However, this was not the reality on the ground! Sarah was infertile until she was 90, and then she bore only one child, Isaac. They wandered in tents as sojourners in the promised land, possessing only their burial plots upon their death. And perhaps most brazen, God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac. Can you imagine the confusion Abraham felt?

Yet…

Abraham and Sarah were faithful; not perfect, mind you, but faithful. They drew near to the One they considered faithful to them and trusted His Word. Assured of the hope they held in the Almighty God, the God who holds the power to bring life and to bring death, they walked forward in obedience. Walking in faith proved to be their best yes, even when the landscape of the future looked daunting and unnerving.

In the same way, our best yes is always faithfulness in the smallest details of our journey. Sometimes the promises of God fly in the face of our present circumstances. Sometimes confusion settles deep into our hearts. But, like Abraham and Sarah, take the first step of faithfulness, and then the next step and then the next, until you look back and see a trail of faithful obedient steps that led you directly to your Father’s heart. You cannot always choose your next adventure, but you can choose to live faithfully in the adventure God gave you.