For most of us facing these unprecedented pandemic times that descended upon the world as a dark cloud when she wasn’t looking or prepared, we find ourselves leaving the onramp and navigating unsettling new territory down the interstate of I-Uncertainty for the very first time.
Just a month ago, high school seniors were anticipating senior prom, graduation and college. Summer brides were counting the days to the wedding they had dreamed about their entire life. Family gatherings of all kinds were waiting their turn to happen; milestone birthday parties, anniversaries, retirements, etc. Now these well planned events will remain as unfinished stories, as the calendars of our lives have been cleared and we find ourselves wondering, searching for answers, some panicking and worrying down the interstate of I-Uncertainty.
Decades ago when my country grandmother (MaMaw) was alive, ever so often she’d take me down to the dark and musty cellar, her stretch of I-Uncertainty to unveil those hundreds of old and outdated preserved canned goods of every kind, layered in years of dust and cobwebs remaining from the Great Depression. Her voice still echoing that deep rooted fear from those uncertain times when work, food and money was scarce, my grandmother reminded me while looking at her preserved food from a time in history I never experienced,
“At least we wouldn’t go hungry.”
My grandmother’s canned goods exceed their shelf life months after the Great Depression became a memory, yet she kept them for reasons unbeknownst to me, yet maybe as her security blanket, a personal reminder of God’s faithfulness or quite possibly as her personal altar of remembrance that God didn’t allow his children to go hungry or beg bread.
I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.
Psalm 37:25 NIV
These uncertain times find the grocery shelves scarce and in many places empty of needed food. This scarcity is a new experience and has panicked many and somewhat frightened my daughter of three children, who like all parents wants to provide food for their babies.
While it’s a first for even a grandmother my age listening to the cries of the world in panic, a similar story of emotion my grandmother used to share regarding the Great Depression.
It’s during these uncertain times that God calls us to re-visit our altars of remembrance, those altar of stones we erect to remind us of those hard places God has called us out and rescued from, just as our good daddy promised that He would, to build our faith and lift our downcast hearts when driving again down those new and unfamiliar miles of I-Uncertainty in the future.
During these uncertain times we as parents are to take our children and grandchildren to our altars of remembrances, to remind them of the faithfulness of the God they serve; that these stories of our yesterday’s remain alive in their re-telling time and again throughout the generations, to build their faith in times of uncertainty.
The living, the living – they praise you, as I am doing today; parents tell their children about your faithfulness.
Isaiah 38:19
To my children,
to my grandchildren,
to my grandchildren beyond,
and to whomever chooses to follow,
I take you to my
Altar of Remembrance,
A place I visit often whenever I need to have my faith built up, when my heart needs to catch its breath, an altar of stones where I worship my God who was faithful to me and my small children when my personal world came to a halt.
These altars of remembrances remind us to be encouraged that the God of our yesterday is the same God of today, and we can rest that He will be our God of forever.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. Hebrews 13:8
(A blog I wrote a year ago.)
BE STRONG. BE COURAGEOUS. BE NOT AFRAID.
By Lori A. Alicea
Be strong and courageous.
Do not be afraid or terrified …..
for the Lord your God goes with you;
he will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Deuteronomy 31:6 NIV
For so many of us, this song plays from the radio of our heart while driving the interstate of I-Uncertainty, not able to see the miles of road and what waits ahead of us, with blind spots from every angle.
While tempted to change the station and take the first off-ramp of a detour, our God, our navigator, soothes our fears to keep on traveling and singing,
BE STRONG.
BE COURAGEOUS,
BE NOT AFRAID.
We’ve all traveled that road of I-Uncertainty at least once in our lives. Chances are the longer we live, the scenery this “stretch of miles” might begin to look familiar. You remember that billboard passing the first mile-marker to greet you in bold neon letters:
BE STRONG.
BE COURAGEOUS.
BE NOT AFRAID.
You questioned the bold statement so quickly after crossing state lines onto I-Uncertainty. But it doesn’t take long when you begin to question your surroundings, the unfamiliar you didn’t see on the map or remember last time you were passing through. But another billboard stands in the distance from the winding roads of bareness you just passed to ease your fears of feeling alone,
FOR THE LORD YOUR GOD GOES WITH YOU.
I remember driving down the interstate of I-Uncertainty almost twenty-nine years ago. I never thought the map of my life would have me driving down this “neck of the woods”, a single mom with two small children in the back seat of the car, yet here we were, passing that first mile-marker greeted by a bright billboard of neon letters,
BE STRONG.
BE COURAGEOUS.
BE NOT AFRAID.
I’ve never driven this far away from home before, alone.
I’ve never been on my own before, alone.
What if the car breaks down while I’m alone?
Alone is that “winding stretch of bareness” I saw on the map, though didn’t think much of it until it was me behind the wheel.
Yet to ease that unsettled ache of being alone the many miles ahead was the second billboard with its bright message no one could miss,
FOR THE LORD YOUR GOD GOES WITH YOU.
While packing up the car for our new life down I-Uncertainty, so much of what we loved would have to stay behind with the limited room in the trunk.
The most difficult to leave behind was that beautiful two acre lot of heaven we as a family treasured making memories celebrating all our events. Such peace and tranquility of so many mornings sitting outside basking in the beauty of our land while drinking that first cup of coffee. So many afternoons the imaginations that ran wild with the children’s feet up and down the acres they called home.
Now, their back yard is just a bench that two siblings share and a back yard seat where I drink my morning coffee alone on the weekends.
Gone was our peace and tranquility as a looming cloud of suffocation hovered as neighbors crowded our personal space, deafened by the noise of city life with emergency vehicles blaring their sirens at all hours of the day and night.
Feeling terribly alone and abandoned yet that song from the radio of my heart continues to comfort in its quiet hum,
God will never leave you nor forsake you.
Those words rang loudly true once as our car broke down during a dark night when money was scarce because of a job loss and lunch and dinner for the next few days was a pan of leftovers from dinner the night before. After those leftovers were eaten, our next meal was an agonizing question mark. My worst fears of being alone came true with the horrible thought of my children going hungry alongside of the byway, with no sight of roadside assistance.
For a mother to look at her children’s face then be reminded of the barren cupboards and refrigerator was beyond painful.
BUT I HAD TO BE STRONG.
I HAD TO BE COURAGEOUS.
I COULDN’T BE AFRAID.
Another billboard caught my attention when that fretful night became morning,
…I have never seen the righteous forsaken
or their children begging bread. Psalm 37:25 NIV
GOD DIDN’T LEAVE US.
GOD DIDN’T FORSAKE US.
God showed up unannounced and just in time alongside of the road through my grandparents bringing grocery money worth a two weeks supply.
I never gave my grandparents my new address; nor did anyone else.
I never revealed to anyone my empty refrigerator.
I never cried to anyone but God my fears.
Yet God got kept his promise to go with me down that lonely interstate of I-Uncertainty. God kept his promise to never leave me broken down or forsake me as I traveled I-Uncertainty. God kept his promise that my children would never beg bread the miles of I-Uncertainty.
God kept his promise through a grandfather who months later was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
Since that five year journey down the lonely road of I-Uncertainty, I found that in my weakness of being alone and being without, I could be secure and strong in the faithful shoulders of God. I didn’t need to carry the weights of my burdens for he would do the heavy lifting for me.
I could be STRONG in Him.
I could be COURAGEOUS in Him.
I didn’t have to be AFRAID because of Him.
I wouldn’t travel the streets ALONE because of Him.
My UNCERTAIN days were safe in the hands of a CERTAIN God,
As he is the faithful same yesterday, today and forever.
If the map of my itinerary found me again journeying the interstate of I-Uncertainty, I’d be at peace in my traveling companion who erected a billboard for my confidence,
FOR THE LORD YOUR GOD GOES WITH YOU.
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