Blank Pages
RANDOM THOUGHTS ABOUT BLANK PAGES
Back in 1985 when I was applying to become a student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, one of the requirements was that the church I was a member of had to send a recommendation to the seminary on my behalf. When I think about some of the students I went to seminary with, I have to wonder what their churches were thinking. On the other hand, maybe they were just trying to get rid of them. But I digress.
At any rate, our pastor explained in the business meeting that I was called to ministry and desired to further my education at SBTS and that I needed the church’s recommendation. The church voted without any discussion and unanimously to send that recommendation. Maybe they were just trying to get rid of me! A week or so later, a lady who was in the meeting asked the pastor why I had to have the church recommend me to go work at a paper mill, and if I wanted to work at a paper mill, why didn’t I just apply at Union Camp there in Savannah? Somehow, she had misunderstood (hugely) the whole situation and thought I was moving to Kentucky to work at a paper mill. I often thought of that story as I was churning out paper after paper in class after class over the next few years. Maybe I had gone to work in a paper mill after all.
Since that time, I have filled a lot of blank pages with sermons, lessons, articles, letters and even a few books. Over the last week, I have been churning them out at a little faster pace in preparation for a minor procedure I’m having on a finger tomorrow (8/14). I’ve gotten ahead a couple of weeks in preparations just in case the finger is sore and I don’t want to type.
The only thing still hanging over my head has been this article. As I started the day today, I said to myself, “One more blank page...” Well, one more for this week. There will always be more blank pages upcoming to be filled.
Have you ever noticed that there are several blank pages in your Bible, usually a few at the front before the title page and a few in the back, after the maps? I don’t know why they’re there. It probably has something to do with the printing process. Imagine all the trees that have given their lives for blank pages. I’ve often thought that it would be neat that if when we looked at those blank pages, we could see writing there that no one else could see, God’s specific will and plans for our lives. “You will pursue this career. You will attend thus and such school. You will marry this person. You will live in this city, in this particular neighborhood.”
It sure would make it easier.
But where’s the adventure in that?
Think about where you were five or ten years or even a year ago. Could you have imagined all the twists and turns you’ve gone through in that time? What health issues have arisen in your life over the last few years? What moves have you made? What career changes? What relationships have you formed, or maybe lost? What mountaintops of joy or valleys of despair have you traversed? How much of it did you see coming?
Who we are today, for better or worse, has been formed by those situations we never saw coming, and our reactions to them. The blank pages don’t prepare us for those curve balls that come out of nowhere.
But the pages between the blank pages do.
The “prophet” Garth Brooks famously sang, “And now, I’m glad I didn’t know, the way it all would end, the way it all would go. Our lives are better left to chance. I could have missed the pain, but I’d’ve had to miss the dance.” Catchy song. Well written. Brings a tear to my eye. Rhymes and everything. But chance? Blind, impersonal, undirected, random chance? Who could dance to that?
The key to the dance is the partner. In particular, the partner who leads. Let’s do a re-write, shall we? “And now, I’m glad I didn’t know, the way it all would end, the way it all would go. Our lives are better left to God. I could have missed the pain, but I’d’ve had to miss the growth, the adventure, the satisfaction, the surrender, the provision, the fulfillment, the understanding, the compassion, the miracles, the healing, the maturity, the wisdom, the support, the knowing Him better, the relationships and fellowship with God and His people, the expanding faith, the contracting fear...”
Probably not a hit record. Doesn’t fit the music. Messes up the rhyme. But still... it’s got a good beat, and you really can dance to it.
Where will you or I be in 5 or 10 years? God only knows...
...and that’s OK. Just keep holding on to Him and following His lead. He knows the steps.
And by the way, it’s not always a waltz with the Lord leading. Some of it is a square dance with the Lord calling the cadence.
Let’s get together this Sunday and navigate this dance of life together.
Numbers 6:24-26,
Bro. Donnie