“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

-Isaiah 55:8-9

My spirit grieves in response to recent events. As I read God’s words spoken through Isaiah, I ponder times when my life ventured away from the script I had written. While some were unexpectedly joyous, others destroyed me, and the totality of my experience is part of who I am today. Thinking back, I am convinced that painful episodes were seasons of spiritual growth. They forced me to rely on God in ways I had not previous known, they enabled me to see other people with new eyes, and while I desire joy and health and happiness and all the wonder possible, I realize that difficulty helps me grow closer to God.

How often have you experienced pain, sadness, grief and confusion, and you prayed for God to take away the pain, but it continued, and you wondered why God allowed you to suffer in that manner? Have you prayed for certain outcomes, and later watched as events unfolded in ways far removed from your prayers? In my experience, pain, sadness, grief and confusion force us to turn to God, to seek Him, to surrender, trust and grow in faith.

God, speaking through the prophet Isaiah, reminds us, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  God’s ways frequently surprise us because we are simply not smart enough and our vision, perspective and information are not expansive enough.

I know that God knows everything and that his thoughts and thought processes are perfect and that they are far removed from mine, but when I see certain events I cannot help but wonder why. Why did God allow that to happen, or why did He structure events that way? I think about the many surprising events in Scripture. As one of many examples, consider His plan for redemption. Had I been tasked with designing the plan, I would have never imagined a plan where God comes to earth as a man, surrenders Himself to torture and execution, is resurrected, and thereafter offers redemption to everyone who believes in Him. I would have imagined something much simpler, like snapping His spiritual fingers or speaking and making it so. But God’s plans are higher than mine.

Similarly, I think about tragic headlines. A heavily armed young man filled with hatred and evil enters a synagogue intent on killing people as they worship God. Another straps bombs to his body, walks into a crowded market and detonates the bombs. A segment of the Body of Christ, a small sliver of the Body, allows tiny seeds of disunity to grow into an all-encompassing weed of dissension, threatening to fracture that sliver of the Body. Jesus prays for unity, yet at times we foster disunity and create chaos. When God speaks He brings order out of chaos, yet chaos continues. Do we hear His voice?

I know God respects our free will and I know that evil is a natural consequence of and, really, a requirement for free will, but my spirit grieves when I see tangible evidence of evil, especially when evil appears to be in a position to claim some form of victory. I know God is all-powerful, He is sovereign, He can do anything and everything, and I know He has a plan for each of us and a plan for the Body of Christ, and I know His ways and thoughts are higher than mine, and I know He is victorious, so I trust in His sovereign plan, I pray that I am aligned with it, and I praise His holy name. And I thank God because I know that somehow He will reveal His glory, even through situations that may seem dark and ominous to us.

I also know with absolute certainty that so long as we sincerely seek Him, so long as we truly surrender to Him, and truly endeavor to serve Him in word, deed and sign, we will grow closer to our brothers and sisters in Christ who are doing the same. God breeds unity. He is love and His presence generates peace. Praise God! Praise His holy name! Jesus Christ is victorious, He is the way, truth and life, He is the resurrection, and we are each cleansed, healed and made whole by His blood. Praise God!

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” I try to imagine God’s eternal perspective. He is beyond time. He knows how everything in this realm bound by time and space ultimately ends. His reality is eternity. By comparison, our time here on earth is a mere instant. How might our perspective change if we had some portion of God’s eternal view? How might we see the events of each day differently? Would our thoughts and priorities change?

As I consider my task list for today, attempting to view it as I imagine an eternal view might be, what on the list has eternal significance? God is eternal. Spirits and souls continue forever. Relationships might continue forever. This causes me to ask, how will I use today to grow closer to God? What will I do to build relationships or to foster the spiritual growth of people I encounter? My job is certainly important – eating and maintaining a roof over our heads are important – and our jobs are gifts from God, so I am not suggesting that we stop performing our jobs and other daily responsibilities, but is it possible we could seek God and better engage others through an eternal perspective while we go about our daily responsibilities?  Perhaps we would spend more time praying, studying Scripture, building relationships, engaging in conversation, getting to know one another, building trust and transparency, seeing others as God’s holy creation, and allowing God’s love to flow through us in tangible ways.

I am not suggesting we will gain God’s thoughts or His ways entirely, they will always be higher than ours, but consider adding matters of eternal significance to your daily task list and see how it changes your perspective. Praise God! Praise His holy name. I thank God for the work He is accomplishing through you. May God give you eyes to see, ears to hear, and heart that allows His seeds to grow.