God has been reminding me lately that he’s the only one with the perfect view of my life.

That’s easy to forget. We’re the ones living our lives, after all. He’s just “watching,” right?

Wrong.

Think with me for a minute: How many nasty conflicts, poor decisions, and painful regrets in your life played out because you didn’t see things clearly at the time?

Uh huh.

How many of those situations could have turned about differently if you’d just have known what you know now?

Most of them.

Let me remind you of what I so often forget: God knew what you know now, and he knew it back then. And he knew even more than that. Much, much, more.

Next question: Do you think that maybe, just maybe, SOME of those situations had different options available to you, options that seemed irrational or invisible at the time, but that would have improved how things turned out?

Yup.

And do you think that maybe, just maybe, God would have loved nothing more than to show you those options at the time so that things could have turned out differently?

Uh…

Come on now. God is your Father. He loves you. He promises to give you wisdom generously, without exception (James 1:6).

So you and I have a job to do. It’s called “Fixing our eyes on Jesus” as we “run with endurance the race marked out for us.” Marked out. Like, those invisible and irrational options are possible. Seeable. Choosable. If we look to him.

So you’re in the middle of a personal conflict. A trial. Pain. The best question you can ever ask is not, “Lord, could you please end this?” although he might do that (though not likely). No, the best question is, “Lord, what do you want me to see, feel, know right now? How do you see what’s going on? What would you like me to know right now?”

Try it.