There’s a lot I don’t know. Paul said we can only “know in part,” so sometimes I wonder why I think I should know all the answers to the God questions.
Today I started praying for the unknowing that I know of, not all of it mine, some of it yours: not knowing if one can find a job, not knowing if one will get accepted to school, not knowing how much longer one will live, not knowing if one will walk again, not knowing if one should stay in the job one has, not knowing if one’s child will remain cancer free, not knowing if one can endure the loneliness, not knowing if one can stay sober tomorrow, not knowing how to help, not knowing where one’s faith community is, not knowing how to find one’s way back home, not knowing if one can hold everything together, not knowing if one made the right decision, not knowing where the next meal will come from, not knowing when the war will end, not knowing if one’s spouse escaped the rubble and is alive.
The story gives me cold chills, but I suppose Abraham didn’t know how God would rescue his son Isaac from the sacrificial knife. In the midst of the unknowing, he walked on and his trust in God grew. “God will provide,” he said. It doesn’t happen all the time…the trust, that is. Yet trust can’t happen at all without at least some unknowing.
So now I’m back to praying for the unknowing that I know of. Maybe a little trust will grow in me, in you. What’s your unknowing prayer?
jnkuebler says
Oh, my. I think a great deal of my praying is of this sort–not knowing, waiting, maybe trusting.
Elaine Dent says
I think for a few days I’ll begin my part of conversations with God with, “I don’t know…(why, how where, what)….”
Elaine Dent says
Two days of praying…”I [we] do not know…” is 1) humbling but 2) helps with living inside one’s human, finite skin, and 3) makes understandable why trust is such an integral need in a life of faith.
Elaine Dent says
I do not know what you will do tomorrow in worship. I do not know what you want to do in so many pew-seated hearts. If I or someone else am part of the thread that will help another hear your voice, then that would be a mercy. If not, then that is a mercy too. I’ll be there, watching and listening.
Daisy says
Hi Elaine,
I came to your site through Search the Sea and wanted to mention how I am thoroughly enjoying reading through your posts. I love this phrase:
“praying for the unknowing that I know of”
Amen. Most definitely.
Elaine Dent says
Thank you, Daisy, and welcome. Hope you can keep joining in the conversation.
Daisy says
thanks, Elaine. It is my intention to do so. 🙂
I also have to say that I love the photos on the side. Are they yours? Good eye.
Elaine Dent says
Daisy, some photos are mine, some are Rick’s (my husband). Many of them are from my sabbatical when I walked from D.C. to Pittsburg in the spring of 08. Picassa helps 🙂