Anonymous: Jesus' hidden years...and yours

by Alicia Britt Chole

In other words, trials tell us less about our future than they do about our past. Why? Because the decisions we make in difficult places today are greatly the product of decisions we made in the unseen places of our yesterdays.

“I feel that trials do not prepare us for what’s to come as much as they reveal what we’ve done with our lives up to this point.”

In moments when I am tempted to treat this gift called time as though it were some unfortunate filler, I hear a gentle whisper from God in my soul: “Child, I am the God who wastes no man’s time. To me, every course in your life is main.” Main is not behind us. Nor is main way out ahead of us. To our God, this course—call it transition, further studies, unexpected illness, financial crisis, grief, or a desert—is as full of potential as any course ever has been and any course ever will be. Every course—and certainly every day—is a gift from God. (Enjoy it while it’s hot.)