Some seasons pad in like kittens, entering so quietly, so gently, you don’t notice the change until it’s well underway. Some seasons enter like a souped-up muscle car careening into town.

Before, you lived on a merry-go-round – predictable and calm, familiar and routine.

Now, you barrel who-knows-where on a runaway roller coaster.

What had seemed steady and certain may flail wildly. What had seemed immovable may sway violently. What had seemed trustworthy may fail you spectacularly. Whole families – or even whole nations – may heave. Some days, you may feel like heaving, too.

In turbulent times, your heart can move permanently to your throat.

Treasure I’m seeking

More than a decade ago, a new season careened into my life, announcing itself as turbulent from the start.

She smiles at the future

A few days into that volatile season, I was reading about the Proverbs 31 woman – and came to a screeching halt at these words:

She smiles at the future. (v. 25 NAS)

“Yeah, but she had it all together,” I scoffed. “She obviously had everything under control.”

But did she? Does anyone?

Then I discovered that the Hebrew word translated smiles literally means to laugh.

She laughs without fear of the future. (NLT)
She can laugh at the days to come.

I felt as if I were standing mid-street, with a souped-up muscle car careening toward me – only to hear a voice cry out: “Smile! Better yet, laugh.”

How ridiculous. Irresponsible. Smacking of denial. Inviting disaster.

And yet, I was intrigued. For I knew:

God never calls us into naïveté and denial. Indeed, he calls us out of both. And neither characterized the woman described in Proverbs 31:10-31. No, she saw clearly and acted decisively. She took seriously what needed to be taken seriously.

Without shunning the turbulent truth

Many scriptures call us to do the same. Here are two:

1 Thessalonians 5:8. Watch and keep your minds awake to what is happening (NLV). Stay alert and be sober (CJB).

1 Peter 5:8. Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (NAS).

The Greek word often translated “sober” in both these verses means “not intoxicated; free from illusion; having clear judgment and being self-controlled.”

Soberness keeps us grounded, in the face of groundless fears that the father of lies tries to stoke. But also, soberness recognizes real danger, and its source, and helps us get safely away.

Denial and naïveté stand, laughing, as danger approaches head-on.

• Naïveté keeps us happily unaware that we’re looking at life through rose-colored glasses designed to block out unpleasant truth.
• Denial commands us to ignore what we don’t want to see, and to believe what we want to be true.

Tragically, both can masquerade as faith. Both can keep us eternally optimistic – and lure us, smiling, into a pit.

Ah, but a counterfeit always mimics something of great value. I did not want to miss the treasure, trying to avoid the con.

The woman described in Proverbs 31 had found that treasure. Without shunning the turbulent truth, she could look ahead, and smile.

I longed to do the same. Even in hard times, especially in hard times, I wanted to experience:

• the laughter born of faith in him who is faithful and true;
• the joy of those who smile because they see.

Questions I’m asking

And so, through a decade of intense personal turmoil, I asked the Lord questions, and searched and waited and watched. All along the way, even when I was unaware he was doing it, God answered.

Now, he has taken me back to some things I wrote, and rewrote, during those years when smiling at the future seemed impossible and he began to show me it can be done. Now, I’m seeking words to express the more the Lord has continued to bring to light.

From the first, one question stood out.

Might turbulent times be key times to learn the laughter born of faith?

From the first, I heard in my spirit: Yes!

“But. But …” my soul would often retort.

God didn’t ignore my concerns, yet he didn’t answer them right away. Instead, he taught me patience and trust. In time, he began to reveal what I had been learning all along.

But in volatile seasons, isn’t it more important to “be sober” than smile?

Truth is, it’s not “either/or.” 

Soberness is important. The Lord lamented over Israel:

They are a nation devoid of purpose and without insight. O, that they were wise to understand this and consider their future! (Deut. 32:29 ISV)

Peace and hope are important too. Jesus asked the crowds he taught:

Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? (Matt. 6:27)

Even in the most chaotic of seasons, there is “a time to weep and a time to laugh” (Eccl. 3:1, 4).

Faith does not require us to be perennially perky. Nor does facing and processing trauma require us to be unceasingly serious or sad.

Jesus demonstrated as much. Early in his three-year ministry, when things were going well for him, he blessed those who mourn. Always, he was serious about his purpose and clear-minded in carrying it out. In the mounting chaos prior to his death, he himself wept and mourned.

Yet also, Jesus was “full of joy through the Holy Spirit” (Luke 10:21). Facing the cross, he spoke of his joy. His desire? “That my joy will be in you and your joy will be complete.” His prayer? That all who know him will “share completely in my joy” (John 15:11; 17:13 CEB).

And then, “For the joy set before him he endured the cross.” (Heb. 12:2)

The Message paraphrase says:

Because he never lost sight of where he was headed – that exhilarating finish in and with God – he could put up with anything along the way.

But how can I do that? How can I possibly smile at the future now?

Our risen Lord answers, “I have made the way.” The indwelling Spirit adds, “I guide you in that way and empower you to take it.”

The Spirit of God opens to us the Word of God, and the Word gives us language for what the Spirit reveals.

Keys I’m discovering

Humanly speaking, we can’t see farther than this minute, or this world, or whatever in it frightens or discourages us most. In Christ, we have the capacity to see what we otherwise could not. Some of what our Lord wants to show us is sobering. Some is delightful and astonishingly good.

The more we try to pick and choose what we will or won’t see, the more we stifle our capacity to walk in truth and faith, hope and love. Ah, but the more we say yes to seeing whatever the Lord wants to reveal, the more he strengthens our faith, gives us good hope and increases our capacity for joy.

The other three posts in this Smiling at the Future series explore three ways that seeing with the eyes of our heart helps us smile into the unknown:

• Living in two worlds – Jesus shows us, and the Spirit teaches us, how to live in this world and also see into, and live from, an unseen world that is far greater.
• Fighting fear with fear – Our God becomes a sanctuary when we fight fear of the future with the fear of the Lord.
• Look ahead with hope – Jesus has good in store for us both in time and in eternity. When we know him in our very being as resurrection and life, we can look ahead with hope.

A prayer I’m praying

Beloved of the Father, redeemed of the Lamb, intimate of the Spirit:

I pray your heart will be flooded with light so you can understand the confident hope he has given those he has called – his holy people, who are his rich and glorious inheritance.

I pray you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else – not only in this world but also in the world to come.

Eph. 1:18-21 NLT

Even in difficult times, especially in difficult times, may you experience the laughter born of faith.

Drawn by your confidence and joy, may people hurtling who-knows-where on a runaway roller coaster, ask in awe, “The future – how can you smile just thinking about it?”

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The original version of this series was published Feb-Apr 2014, and was adapted from the Key Truths e-column, “Smiling Just Thinking About It,” 2008, 2014. Now, I’m republishing these posts, after revising them again. In other words, this is something I’m continuing to learn.

Image by mariya_m from Pixabay

Other insights for turbulent times

This series focuses on one way we cooperate with God in the hard times to move toward a future of healing and life. There are other ways to cooperate with God too. I’ve written about several of them in other posts, including:

• When your world has changed
• God who has wronged me
• The blessing of mourning
• When waiting is writhing
• Waiting for hope