Letters to a Samuel Generation: A Dance With Mystery
written May 2003
Every day we live is one more step into the unknown. Stability, normality: they are myths, perpetuated by a world of individuals who would not have the courage to live without them. If New Yorkers could have foreseen what would happen after the sun rose on September 11, 2001, how many would have possessed the strength to get out of bed that morning? Every one of us dances with Mystery; it is an exhilarating, sometimes terrifying, dance—because we cannot know how it will end.
But we, who are the people of God, need not fear the unknown. The road ahead is covered in mist, that much is true, but the road is not really unknown. There is One who has walked it before us.
“He calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out,” Jesus said, “and when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice.”
Jesus here spoke of one He called “the Good Shepherd”—Himself. “He goeth before them.” Jesus never asked anyone to go into uncharted waters alone. He asked only that they follow Him, trusting that the way ahead of them has been prepared by the Master.
The disciples knew this. I love the words which the angel spoke to the women at the empty tomb: “Go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you.” It is the same for us. He has gone before us; if we would see Him, we must follow.
And so we join hands with the cloaked spectre of Mystery and dance, unafraid, down the pathways of life. Those who do not believe cannot know what the future holds for them. And while we do not know the exact circumstances of ours, we do know this—for us, the name of Mystery is the Will of God, and that Will is good and perfect.
Do not suppose that this means the way ahead is all through green pastures and quiet valleys. The perfect will of God led Jesus to Gethsemane, to the Cross. As Amy Carmichael asks, “Can he have followed far, who has no wound nor scar?” But it also led Him to the Resurrection, to Galilee, and to the endless skies. It is the same for us. If God leads us into the Valley of the Shadow of Death, certainly He will lead us out again.
There is another place the Spirit of God may lead. I have been there, and the greatest struggle while there is a struggle with doubt—for it is very hard to recognize any reason or plan of God underneath the deadness of the surroundings. I speak of the Desert, where every wind scorches and the sun causes illusions that parade doubts through our minds, and the path is seemingly lost in endless sand. But even here He has gone before us, as Luke tells the story: “And Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.”
It is not an easy thing to understand, this leading of the Spirit into the wilderness. For oftentimes the first person we meet there is the old Adversary himself, Satan, who thrives on deadness. It is hard to know why we must endure the tempting of the devil, in this place where there is so little to sustain us. But God has His reasons, never doubt it. Moses understood the reasons better than most, and he gave them to the Children of Israel:
“And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep my commandments, or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live” (Deut. 8:2-3).
Learn the lessons of the desert when you find yourself there, for there is more richness in that arid soil that you could ever imagine. And do not fear: God does not intend to leave you there. No, His plan is to bring you out: “…into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills” (Deut. 8:7). May you leave the wilderness as Jesus left it: “And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.”
Do not be afraid to dance with Mystery. Trust that God has a plan for your life, and follow Him boldly. Keep your eyes open, for the nail-scarred footprints of the Master are everywhere, proclaiming to all with eyes to see that He has been here.
Mystery does not remain cloaked forever. Bit by bit the mist falls away and Mystery becomes Story, written in the saga of history forever. When your life is over, may you look back on the dance of life in awe of the Presence who went before you, who guarded behind you, and who walked beside you even when you were sure He was not there.