“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight,” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Life is full of planning. We start dreaming of and mapping out our futures at a young age…what we want to be when we grow up, what kind of guy we want to marry, what kind of wedding we want and who will be in our wedding party, how many kids we’ll have, what we want to name our future children, what vehicle we’ll buy when we can afford it, what kind of house we want, etc. In high school, those plans get more real, as we prep for our careers or for college. Then, when we hit adulthood, we start trying to make our dreams a reality.

As a senior in high school, we had a “Senior Spotlight” in the newspaper. It included our senior picture and our answers to several questions, such as who our favorite actor/actress was, what our favorite food was, what we liked to do in our free time, and what our plans were after high school. One of the specific queries was, “At our ten-year class reunion I expect to be…” My answer was, “Nothing like anyone expects me to be.” Knowing what I do now, I instead should have written, “Nothing like I think I will be,” because none of my plans turned out as I thought they would.

When I was a young girl, I wanted to be a pediatrician. In high school, after sustaining a severe ankle injury at a track meet, I found I was interested in physical therapy and decided that’s what I wanted to do for a career. I wanted to go to college in another state because I wanted to get away from my small hometown and see more places. I saw myself getting married after college and having one boy, whose middle name would be Johnny, after my dad. I wanted a big wedding in the fall with five bridesmaids standing up with me. Then, my little family and I would live happily ever after, like a Disney or Hallmark movie.

Fast forward to today, and I’ve been living in my hometown since I moved back almost 14 years ago. I went to a state university only two hours away. I became a nurse (a profession I had no interest in as a young person) and then a nurse practitioner. I had my first child (a girl) when I was a junior in college and was a single mom for a couple of years. Later, I got married to someone from my past. Our wedding was a small family affair in the springtime, with my sister as my sole attendant. My husband and I had two sons together. Our youngest son, I did name after my dad, but not his middle name. Instead, his first name is Jonathan. After almost 17 years of marriage, I am now in the middle of a divorce. Our forever home was, as it turns out, not forever, and our shared plans are no more.

My future as a young person was uncertain, and, as it is for all of us, still uncertain today. Even trivial things, such as the weather, are indefinite. If you live in Missouri, you know that this is especially true. Our temperatures can go from fifteen to seventy degrees in a six-hour period, or vice versa. Even when the meteorologists make confident predictions, we know the outcome often isn’t what is expected. When we’re supposed to get 5 inches of snow, we may get a dusting. When it’s supposed to rain, we may end up with an inch of ice coating the roads or a sunny afternoon.

A long-planned vacation can get cancelled due to weather or illness. A devastating medical diagnosis can wreck your world. A divorce or loss of a loved one can completely obliterate the future you planned with your family. An unexpected job layoff or termination can put your financial freedom in jeopardy.

The truth is there is no certainty in this earthly life (except for death and taxes as the saying goes). Even when it seems everything in life is going perfectly as planned, it can change in an instant. There is no guarantee that we will wake up tomorrow after going to sleep tonight.

Knowing that nothing is certain in life can be a depressing thought and can bring about anxiety at times. However, God instructs us in 1 Peter 5:7 during challenging times to “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”

We can look in the Bible to find direction during times of uncertainty.

Lot’s Wife

(Genesis 18:16-19:29; Luke 17:28-33)

To understand the story of Lot’s wife, we must consider some background information. First, Lot’s wife was married to Lot, obviously. Lot was the nephew of Abraham. In Genesis 12 we learn that when God first called Abraham (then Abram) to leave the country of his birth and travel to a new land where God would make him and his descendants into a great nation (now Israel), Lot went with Abraham.

In Genesis 13 we read that after leaving Egypt and amassing a great amount of wealth through gold, silver, and livestock, Abraham and Lot traveled back to Bethel where they decided to split company because the land couldn’t sustain both households.

 Therefore, Abraham gave Lot the first choice of land. Lot chose the land that looked the best and was well-watered and set up his household by the plain of the Jordan near the city of Sodom. Abraham lived in Canaan.

In Genesis 18 we learn that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah had become so wicked that the Lord sent His angels to go check out the situation there. Knowing that Lot and his family lived in Sodom, Abraham began to bargain with the Lord to spare the cities for those, like Lot, who remained righteous. “Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25).

Abraham’s final plea was this: “Then he said, ‘May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?’ He answered, ‘For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.’ When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home,” (Genesis 18:32-33).

The visitors made it to Sodom where they encountered Lot who invited them into his home for their protection and gave them food and shelter. After arriving, the angels found the wickedness of Sodom was even worse than expected. There weren’t even ten righteous people left in the two cities, as a great number of the men from the cities surrounded Lot’s home and tried to molest the visitors God sent there.

The angels instructed Lot to get his wife and two daughters and any other family members out of the city, “…because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the Lord against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it,” (Genesis 19:13).

When morning came, the visitors urged Lot and his family to hurry and leave before the destruction of the cities. However, we find that even with God’s fervent warning, the family was still reluctant to leave. “When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them,” (Genesis 18:16).

Have you ever been there before? Even when you know terrible things are coming, it’s still hard to let go of that which seems steady, secure, and certain. However, God wants us to put our faith in Him to lead us down the best path. “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps,” (Proverbs 16:9).

“As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, ‘Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!’” (Genesis 18:17). God gave Lot and his family clear instructions: flee, don’t look back, don’t stop.

Finally, we learn the fate of Lot’s wife. “By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt,” (Genesis 18:23-26).

Here is the big question: Why did Lot’s wife look back when she was warned not to? My guess…uncertainty. Lot’s wife was uncertain of what was to come. She was fleeing from her home of many years, the place where she raised her daughters, where she kept house, where she cooked for her family and entertained her friends, where she’d likely made many fond memories. I can’t fault her for wanting one more glimpse of a home that she’d never see again.

Furthermore, as a prosperous woman with vast riches acquired with her husband over the years, she was leaving a life of ease and comfort behind and moving toward the unknown. She only had time to pack whatever she could carry and had to leave everything else behind. My heart goes out to those who have lost their homes by fire or natural disaster. In those moments, your focus is to get out and get to safety, and you grab only the essentials on the way out if you can.

Maybe Lot’s wife was worried about the unknown fate of any friends and family she was leaving behind in the city. Maybe, like a bad car wreck, she was uncertain of the outcome so couldn’t resist the urge to turn and gawk at the destruction behind her.

Whatever the case, God gave Lot and his family clear instructions and warned them what would happen if they didn’t heed His words. Through uncertainty and most likely anxiety, Lot’s wife disobeyed God, and she paid a terrible price. She took her eyes off the destination God directed her toward, instead looking back at a past filled with sin and material things, and she lost her life because of it.

Like Lot and his wife and family, God has given us clear instructions to flee our lives of sin and run straight toward Jesus, not looking back toward our past or holding onto material possessions. God uses the story of Lot’s wife to warn us about Jesus’ future return to gather His believers.

“It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day no one who is on the housetop, with possessions inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it,” (Luke 17:30-33).

Nothing that I had planned for myself in my younger years came to fruition. However, through all my life experiences, I have found that when stay on the path God has put me on and I keep my eyes straightforward toward my destination and toward Jesus, things turn out for the better, even more so than I could have imagined.

Am I always happy where God is leading me? No. Is the path to my ultimate destination always easy? No. Is my future uncertain? Yes and no. My earthly future is always uncertain. However, as a child of God, my eternal future is promised…Heaven with my Savior and all those who have chosen Him.

For Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life,” (John 5:24). “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life,” (John 3:16).

Life is full of uncertainties, but there is one certainty you can always count on, the love and support of your Heavenly Father. When your world is falling apart around you, and every next step is uncertain, He is there directing us forward.

Appreciate the past for what it was, a steppingstone to your present and future. Like Lot’s wife, we won’t always understand when God instructs us to leave things behind, to turn away from a life of comfort. We may wonder, what if? or have anxieties about our unknown future. However, Matthew 6:34 instructs, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

When you’re on the road to a new objective God has for you, keep looking forward. Don’t turn your back on Him. Instead, have faith that He will get you where you need to be, even when you can’t see the destination. “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see,” (Hebrews 11:1).

Have a blessed week!

-Becky