Where Are You Going Next Year?

The seasons abroad are wrapping up, teams are being crowned champions and the last families are heading home for the summer.  In basketball world, as soon as one season is finished, it is time to think about the next season.

When we lived in New Jersey, we had been there long enough that everyone understood how the professional basketball world worked.  So almost as soon as we were settled back in for the summer, we would get asked often (usually about 10 times at church on Sundays), “So where are you going next year?”  I always appreciated that people understood and cared.  But there were times that after a few weeks of it, I wanted to put a big sign on my forehead when we walked into church that said:

WE DON’T KNOW WHERE WE WILL BE NEXT YEAR, BUT WHEN WE DO WE WILL LET YOU KNOW

I think the reason I struggle with the question is not because I mind answering the same question over and over again (I do this all the time as I explain what Joe does and how our life works), but because it brought up an area where I have to battle against anxiety.  Each summer was an opportunity to trust God with where He wanted us to be in the coming year, but I often lost that battle for faith the more I thought about the upcoming season.  You hear of other guys signing in June or your husband hasn’t heard from his agent in a few weeks or you see the box of things set aside for the next season and wonder: Will there be another season?

It is hard not to know where you might be living in 2 months or what your life may hold, but it is a good opportunity for me to preach to my sinful flesh that God is in control and He has what is best for me as His child. It may not be the easiest, most convenient or most comfortable situation, but it will be good.  And that good often comes in the form of trials and struggle.  I see that in my own heart, I all too often think that comfort, ease and things going the way I want (what we often refer to as “blessing” as Christians, and it may be) are those “best” things that God has promised me in life:

But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” – 1 Corinthians 2:9

God has prepared wonderful things for us, but it is in these times I need to remind myself that God does not think in the same terms I do.  He values the right things much higher than I do: being conformed into the image of Jesus, learning to suffer with quiet trust, experiencing trials so I can learn to comfort others who go through similar trials, looking forward to my true home in heaven instead of being so entrenched in the world here on earth, etc.

Again, things going well may very well indeed be blessing, but I always become concerned when I see a tendency in myself to be content resting in the good things of this life.  When I more often praise God for his goodness in the ease of life and don’t worship Him when things don’t go my way, but instead complain or even parade around my sufferings as a martyr, I know I am missing out on some of life’s greatest blessings.  There is grace IN the suffering, not just in getting out of the suffering.

So even though this season of life can be difficult as we live in uncertainty, I want to rejoice when we are asked about where we will be next season.  Because I know that God who loves me enough to let me go through trials knows exactly what I need to trust and enjoy Him more.