Tomorrow Doesn’t Need Your Permission Amidst Uncertain Times

There are seasons of life when tomorrow feels exciting. A new job. A new relationship. A long-awaited vacation. A dream finally beginning to take shape. And then there are seasons when tomorrow feels like something to survive. Loss has a way of doing that.

Grief rearranges the furniture inside the soul. What once felt familiar suddenly feels foreign. Ordinary routines require extraordinary effort. Even getting dressed, making coffee, or answering a text message can feel surprisingly heavy.

People on the outside may not notice. But inside, everything has changed. Perhaps that’s why so many people quietly wonder if something is wrong with their faith.

“I know what I believe,” they tell themselves. “So why does everything still feel so uncertain?”

The truth is, uncertainty has never been a sign that faith has disappeared. Sometimes it is simply evidence that life has become larger than the answers we currently possess.

We often imagine faith as standing confidently on a mountaintop with both hands lifted toward heaven. But much of real faith doesn’t look like that at all.

    • It looks like making breakfast after you’ve cried yourself to sleep.
    • It looks like driving to work with an empty seat beside you.
    • It looks like paying bills you never expected to face alone.
    • It looks like praying without eloquence because all the polished words have worn out.

Sometimes faith is simply taking one more step when the road ahead disappears into fog. Not because the fog has lifted. Because Love hasn’t.

There is something deeply human about wanting tomorrow explained. \

    • We want details.
    • We want guarantees.
    • We want a map with every twist highlighted before we take the first step.
    • We want to know how long the pain will last.
    • We want to know that the people we love will be okay.
    • We want to know that we will be okay.

Life smiles kindly at those questions… and answers very few of them. Instead, something quieter is offered.

Presence. Not explanations. Presence. Not certainty. Presence.

The older I get, the more I notice that God often gives us enough light for today while keeping tomorrow folded safely in His own hands.

At first, that can feel frustrating. We would rather receive an itinerary. Instead, we receive companionship. Perhaps certainty was never the greater gift. Perhaps companionship always was.

That realization doesn’t erase grief. It doesn’t suddenly refill the empty chair at the dinner table. It doesn’t silence the ache that catches you off guard when you hear a familiar song, smell someone’s cologne, or walk past the grocery shelf where they always reached for the same brand of coffee.

Love remembers. And remembrance can be both beautiful and painful.

Yet somewhere in that sacred tension, another realization quietly begins to emerge.

The Father has not abandoned you simply because the road became difficult. He has not stepped away because your prayers have become shorter. He has not become disappointed because your confidence occasionally gives way to tears.

Some of the strongest faith you’ll ever discover doesn’t look strong at all.

    • It looks like whispering, “Father… please stay close.”
    • It looks like choosing kindness when your heart is tired.
    • It looks like getting out of bed one more morning.
    • It looks like believing that even if you cannot see beyond today, the One who loves you already can.

Perhaps faith isn’t the absence of fog. Perhaps faith is discovering you don’t have to walk through it by yourself.

If today feels uncertain, you’re in good company.

Throughout history, countless men and women of deep faith have stood where you are standing now. They didn’t always understand what God was doing. They didn’t always receive immediate answers. They didn’t always feel courageous. But they discovered something that certainty could never have taught them.

God is often most deeply experienced in the places where we finally run out of our own ability to see.

Maybe that’s where you are today.

If so, be gentle with yourself.

    • You are allowed to miss someone.
    • You are allowed to feel overwhelmed.
    • You are allowed to have questions that remain unanswered for a while.
    • You are allowed to rest.

God has never required perfect emotional weather before walking with His children. He has always been willing to meet them in storms.

If all you can manage today is one small step… take one.

If all you can pray is, “Father… stay close.”  That is enough.

If all you can do is breathe deeply and trust that Love has not forgotten your address… that is enough too.

Tomorrow will arrive when it arrives. And when it does, you may discover something beautiful. The strength you needed wasn’t waiting for you yesterday. It will arrive with tomorrow’s grace. Because the Father has always been faithful that way.

You may not be able to see tomorrow. Neither can anyone else. But perhaps the goal was never to see farther. Perhaps it was simply to discover that Love can see farther than you can…

and has been quietly walking beside you the entire time.

Don’t Let Them Get to You

Ever have someone slow your roll by interrupting your positive vibrational momentum and breaking your stride by bringing you down? The power that others wield in your circle of influence may be stronger than you think. Don’t let them get to you.

Because your parents and others supported the idea that you would grow into a confident competent adult, the day came when you adopted the persona of the grownup. You actually became the embodiment of what those around you expected you to become. They believed in you, you believed in their expectations, and you grew into your adulthood.

You are able to face all life’s challenges because you believe in your ability to do so. Often your belief in yourself was influenced by those you who surround and support you.

For those who were not fortunate enough to have a powerful support system, they have a tougher time of it and will face challenges with a feeling of unconfident and incapable of staring obstacles down with the ability to draw from a history of inner strength. These people have the most difficult go of it.

Those within our circle of influence have an incredible effect on who we are and whom we become.

When you’re in the presence of another person, your attitude and potential for successfully navigating any communication is greatly influenced by the other person. Whether it be your friend, someone who has power over you, a parent, teacher, law enforcement, a judge, the government, or your spouse.

Likewise, anyone you have influence over like you friends, workers, if you’re a manager, people you are teaching, younger siblings, or children you might be raising or babysitting, are influenced by the words you use as well as the respect and support you give them when they are in your presence.

For those who are living their highest and best life, they believe in their capacity for goodness, greatness, and unconditional love, and so it is. They are stepping into their purpose, message, passion and mission. These are the people who are not unlike you. You, too, can live a better life, your best life, and make the world a better place.

I guess that’s why it’s referred to your circle of influence. These people don’t just represent the people you have influence over, but it also represents the people who have the ability to have influence over you.

Left unchecked, you could be allowing people to populate your circle of influence who could be dragging you down, they could even be influencing who you are, or who you will become.

If you have allowed people to influence you negatively, now is the time to turn the tables on them and show them what you are made of, and all the possibilities which are awaiting your loving embrace. The time has come for you to grow and expand beyond any limitations of anyone else.

The naysayers are wrong. Anyone who ever amounted to anything faced those who didn’t believe in them, and the most successful people persisted to continue to strive above and beyond any of the expectations of the naysayers.

The most successful people proved them wrong in spite of the beliefs of the doubters.

Don’t let them get to you

You have the power over who you become, and it’s up to you to protect yourself from those who could stand between you and your embracing you and all of your potentialities, all your gifts and talents, all your love and strength of honor.

You are worthy. You have been endowed with everything you could possibly need to get from where you are to where you want to be, and no one has the right to question your divine endowment.