To Know or Not To Know...That is the Question

If you could choose, would you rather know what the future held-good and bad, or be surprised and just deal with things as they come?  That is the question my friend Jen posed over at her blog,  Denton Sanitorium.


At first glance, it seemed an simple dilemma, and more than likely one most people would answer the same way.  But the more I pondered the more I wondered if it's really so simple.  Is it really just a matter of knowing or not knowing, black or white?  Or are there gray areas, times when we are given to know what's coming, even time to prepare and adjust before it happens?  Even times when we don't know exactly what's coming, but know that storms are brewing and we must prepare.


I think it depends on the individual, and what's best for them.  I firmly believe there is a path and a plan for each person's life, one divinely guided and inspired. Not a path that is set in stone that we are compelled to follow, for we are free to choose how we live.  Rather, I should say there is a pathway that will lead us to be all that God knows we can be, if we so choose.  That path is not always easy, and it's not always the path we would choose for ourselves.   As we seek to know what is best for us, not best by our standards, but what will help us become that best version of ourselves we will be led to know what that plan entails.


I can think of many times in my past when I longed to know what was ahead of the next bend in my own path, yet my vision was obscured.  But I can also clearly see the way the Lord prepared me to know, accept and embrace each of those bends. I   have almost always known when something major was coming in my life, be it a move or a death in the family. Even smaller things, like the end of a beloved calling (or job/position in church service) or a child's painful disappointment have most often been preceded by a knowledge of what was to come.  


I haven't always listened to these cautionary and preparatory whisperings to my soul.  Sometimes in my pride and stubbornness I have turned a blind eye, refusing to believe what my heart knows to be the truth.  Those times have been the hardest.   Those are the times I've felt alone and wounded, bewildered at life.  Those are the times of my greatest pain.


I don't do well with surprises, I need time.  Time to adjust, time to accept, time to submit.  I know my Father in Heaven knows this about me, and He graciously gives me these whisperings.  He tells me to prepare, He guides me to study, to understand, and to know His will.   Then, when the challenge comes, when the winds blow, I am ready.  I can be strong and stalwart and steadfast.  


So, if I could choose to know or not to know, I'd choose neither.  I'd choose to keep things just as my Father in Heaven has taught me is best for me.   To have an inkling of the storm ahead, to know I must prepare and be ready for the next bend. Because while I haven't always known the exact time, or nature of that bend ahead of me, I've been ready for it.  As long as I listened, I've been ready.