John 16:33
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
COVID… I’m not sure what’s next. TikTok… I’m not sure what’s next. The upcoming school year… I’m not sure what’s next.
There are plenty of “what’s next” thoughts floating in our air space. They’re like nasty gnats brushing up against our ears, irritating us endlessly, and making us squirm and wiggle. They’re pests, these “what’s next” based questions we’re asking.
I hate gnats and bugs and flying creatures that terrorize any and everyone. You know those Japanese beetles? They’re this shiny metallic green, buzz extremely loud, and suffer from blindness (I’m not sure that’s true, just a strange fact I heard once). Well, these beetles freak most people out and cause some pretty obnoxious and ridiculous scenes.
I can remember a time when a friend and I were eating brunch on a beautiful Sunday. We were having a lovely conversation, the sun was shining, life felt normal and calm for once in the past 3 months. That was until a pesky Japanese beetle flew right into our air space. There was frantic screaming, the swatting of arms, shrills of fear and laughter from bystanders. You think it ends there? You’re wrong. The beetles found his way safely away from the chaos, but he wasn’t quite done terrorizing our table. We settled back into a good talk and continued on in our normal peaceful day. But he came back for more. Ten minutes later and this same dumb beetle is up in our space causing anxiety left and right.
That beetle is my what’s next. The second I let my mind wander to the uncertainty of life as we know it, I’m immediately stressed, overwhelmed, and confused. And you know what’s funny, those what’s next thoughts, as terrorizing as they may seem, are just Japanese beetles, blind and dumb, scarier than they truly are at the end of the day.
That day the beetle came to cause chaos at our brunch was a wonderful day, why let a dumb beetle bother us? The life we’re living, the hope we have in Jesus who’s successfully conquered the world, why let our anxious “what’s next” thoughts set us into a stress frenzy?
What if we stopped letting phrases like “what’s next” and “what if” fill us with anxiety? They’re pests, little Japanese beetle pests, and we’ve got to focus on the bigger truths.
Today, take time to lay all those pesky Japanese beetle “what’s next” phrases at the feet of Jesus. Look to Jesus and acknowledge who he is. He’s our savior, the King of Kings, the almighty. He’s overcome the world and at the end of the day, we can’t let “what’s next” and “what if’s” dictate how we live. We can trust in Jesus, that’s what we can do, and that’s incredible.