Advent Devotional by Carrie Bartlow

Matthew 24: 36-44

But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,[a] but only the Father. (Matthew 24:36)

In every personality test I’ve taken, a few words always rise to the top. Organized. Foresees problems. Loyal to ideas, systems and beliefs.

I want to know who is going to be in my corner…and what I’m supposed to do when there’s no simple solution…when things are going to get better…and where I can turn when there are more problems than solutions…why life isn’t always fair and how I can move forward when the answers aren’t simple and the outcomes are sometimes downright devastating.    

This passage is a reminder that we can’t prepare for the unexpected, but we can be ready to accept it.  We can plan and organize until there are no more minutes left in the day – but sometimes the best we can do is open ourselves up for all of it - the good and bad news, the surprises and the “I knew that would happens.”

Allowing the unknown to paralyze my thoughts is something I’ve struggled with for years and is why I keep a passage from one of my favorite bloggers/authors in my planner. Her words are a comforting reminder that forcing myself to consider every possible scenario when the answer may never be revealed to me only robs today of its joy!

“We’ll only ever be required to handle one day at a time. Thinking about all of the future right now—packing years of challenges into this one present moment when we try and force ourselves to deal with every heartache we’ll ever possibly experience in life—is not only overwhelming, but it’s unrealistic. Whatever the case, when we get there, we’ll wake up any given morning and deal with that one day. And amid the challenges of that day, there will also be lots of good things to cushion the hard moments—both for us and our children. People who make us happy, lovely things to make us smile. Coffee and music and walks outside and delicious food and good books and holding hands and kissing cheeks. And then we get to go to bed every night and wake up again and deal with the next day with maybe the same challenges but new good things too. We’ll never have to deal with thirty years of hardship on one given day, so why do we force ourselves to think about all of it right this second?” - Kelle Hampton

Carrie Bartlow