Justin Cherry

Sometimes I feel like Daniel, when at the end of his book he asks God, “My Lord, what will the outcome of all this be?”

I’m a guy that likes to know the future. I like to plan ahead.

Part of it is built into me and my job. I am a visionary, a future thinker. I am a strategist. I did this both in the business world and now in ministry.

I want to know that my family will be taken care of. I want to know that I will have a job now and in the future. I want to know what’s next.

In other words, I want clarity.

There is an interesting story, in the book A Traveler’s Guide To The Kingdom by James Emery White, about a conversation a man had with Mother Teresa. Upon meeting Mother Teresa, she asked a man named John Kavanaugh what she could do for him. He asked her to pray for him. She then asked what he wanted her to pray for:

He said, “Pray that I have clarity”
Her answer surprised him.
Very firmly, she said, “No. I will not do that.”
He asked her why, and she said, “Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of.”

When he responded to her about her seeming to always have clarity, she said:

“I have never had clarity; what I have always had is trust…So that is what I will pray for. I will pray that you trust God.”

In our search for clarity, “who I am to be?,” “what will happen next?,” etc., we lose our ability to trust. To trust in the One who is in control and makes all things possible. Trust in the One who promises to take care of His children.

In a pursuit for clarity we can forget to live in the moment and see what God is doing all around us.

May we learn to let go of clarity and hold on to trust in the One.

What are you having trouble letting go of?