The Mercy of Not Knowing

August 24, 2023

From Pastor Joseph Wamack

I went to Orlando this past week for a planning meeting for the Southern Union (of which we are a part of).

As I was driving back Tuesday about noon, I found myself on the lovely stretch of I-75 in northern Florida, headed north towards home. I was fortunate enough to have decent traffic, so I was just cruising along, bidding my time.

I happened to glance over onto the other side of the grassy median-to the people headed south on I-75, and I saw a disabled truck on the side of the road. It must have been partially blocking the road because traffic was backing up behind it.

As I continued driving, I began to look at the traffic going south, backing up, slowing way down to a crawl. And as I stared and looked, the back up went on and on. By the time I got to the end of it, as I continued north, my guess is it was 3-4 miles long. It would take those people at least an hour to get by that stalled truck. Living in Atlanta, we have all probably had that experience somewhere, probably more than once - the sitting with no particular place to go.

I started thinking about this backed up car line in a spiritual and philosophical way and thought, “I wish I could tell those people in the cars how long the line of cars is!” And then I thought maybe they are better off NOT knowing.

And then I thought of God and us and how merciful God is. Perhaps they are better off not knowing that the line is 3-4 miles long. Perhaps they can handle it better this way. Perhaps sometimes NOT knowing something is more merciful than knowing.

Jesus said in John 16:12, “I have many things to tell you-more than you can now bear.” He was saving his disciples heartache, stress and worry, because Jesus knew He was sending the Spirit after His ascension. As they walked with the Spirit daily, He would give them the strength, wisdom and power to do what they needed to do.

Perhaps living one day at a time with sweet Jesus, is all we can ask of Him. Perhaps that is enough. God’s grace for today. God’s sufficient grace for today is enough. Tomorrow will arrive and God will be there as well.

“This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Whether in traffic or not, at peace or confused, happy or sad, God’s grace today is sufficient.