Everything Is Fine
in the messy middle
I write from the perspective of the messy middle of my life. I hear from many of you that you relate to a messy life. You’re there, too, in the middle of your life and the middle of more than one mess. Some messes are the result of our mistakes or as a result of the choices of others. No matter how the mess came to be—it just is. 2024 will soon be in the rearview mirror, and I’ll be thankful to be focused on the year ahead.
Typically, I don’t choose a “word of the year,” but I did in 2024. Or, should I say, God led me to mark the year ahead with one word.
Well.
The joke’s on me because I don’t feel well about much in the year gone by.
But I remember Bible verses from 2 Kings, chapters 4 and 8. The woman from Shunem had endured a lot, and God knew about it all. He allowed it all. She didn’t see the end of the mess she was enduring ( including the death of her son and a seven-year famine), but every single thing that happened to her and around her was in God’s perfect timing. And her response in the messy middle of her son’s death?
It will be alright.
Everything is fine.
This mother knew, through the prophet Elisha, that God would bless her with a son. She dared to get her hopes up that she would have a child. God did bless her with a son. But this promise, her son, died. After her son’s death, she knew the one she needed to see was the man of God—Elisha, who promised her a son would come. This mother knew she must see the one who blessed her and made this promise to her. There was only one place to go—one person to see. She believed she could still have hope for her son, and despite his death, everything was fine.
I cannot imagine that level of faith and trust. But, this unnamed woman and mother had it. I wish I did.
Spoiler alert—her son, a blessing given to her because of her kindness to Elisha, was brought to life again! God brings new life to dead situations and circumstances all the time. Do we have the faith and trust in Him to believe it is possible? The God I read about in 2 Kings is the same God who knows every hair on my head and yours. He is the same God who works all things together for our good.
And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. Romans 8:28
Even in the messy middle of our lives, we know God is at work and knows what He’s doing. The messy middle doesn’t change God, although it can and does change us. For many reasons we might never understand, we endure this time. There’s no choice but to trust God as He takes us through it. We won’t see the end because where is the faith in that?
Faith isn’t in the knowing but in the hoping.
Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see. Hebrews 11:1
There was a day this year when I was burdened by a few things and poured out my feelings to my amazing husband—who, to his credit, didn’t try to jump in and attempt to solve any of my problems but listened to how I felt about them. We sat quietly for a while, and it was exactly what I needed. I also needed the message from God delivered to me in the quiet through my Apple watch. Yes, you read that correctly. Siri activated my watch and said, “It’s great to hear that Yes, everything is just fine.” And those words were in bold! I’m thankful I snapped a photo of my watch and this message.
