We live in uncertain times. We live in an uncertain world. This is true for all of us, and for all times, although perhaps some of us experience a bit more uncertainty than others.
L and I have lived with more uncertainty than we were used to since we came to Turkey and we're currently living with even greater uncertainty. For various reasons, we're not quite sure where we'll be living a year or six months from now and we're not even one hundred per cent sure where we'll be living a month from now.
And yet I have lived my life with so much more certainty than so many other people. Obviously the most important areas of certainty relate to salvation and the 'sure and certain hope' we have as believers.
But it wasn't until these last few years in Turkey, living in much closer proximity to the Middle East, that I realised that there were so many areas of my life that were so certain that I'd never even really thought to thank God for it.
I grew up in a country and at a time where I took living in peace for granted - so much so that I don't think it ever really occurred to me that it was something I should be thankful for.
I never thought to thank God for the civic and political stability that I was accustomed to as I grew up either.
We felt our first earthquake a few weeks back. Despite living a couple of hundred miles from the epicentre, we felt the movement and watched the ceiling light swing. When I was growing up, earthquakes were just something we learned about in geography class, not a real and present threat that could occur at any moment. I never thought to thank God for the stability of the ground on which I stood. And honestly, now I live in an area that is much less prone to earthquakes than where we used to live in Turkey, I forget to thank God for the stability of the land around our current city.
I did thank God for food and a warm place to live before. For family and friends and money to buy things we needed and things we wanted. But at that point it was a mostly abstract prayer. Now I know people who don't always have those things I take for granted, and it's more than just money's a bit tight with them. We're praying for someone in our local church gathering who is a refugee and is currently waiting to find out if he'll be granted residency in Turkey or not. Otherwise he might have to return to his home country, where it is incredibly dangerous to be a believer. We have another friend here who has recently believed; he was evicted from his family home and disowned by his parents. I see in a new light how everything I have, and have access to me, is from God and not from myself.
So many things have been so ingrained in my life, so normal, that I don't think about them and so I don't remember to be thankful for them.
The other day I was trying to convince my 4 year old that our planet is spinning. He gets that the earth is a ball shape (although, according to him, 'it's not like a ball that you can kick'). But he just looked at me in utter disbelief when I told him that we were living on a planet that was spinning around. Like I couldn't possibly be serious. The world doesn't feel like it's spinning, like it's moving with an equatorial speed of about 1000 miles per hour (relative to the centre). We don't feel the movement because it's constant, and we, the earth and the atmosphere are all travelling at the same speed. We don't feel the motion because there is no acceleration or deceleration.
And it feels like that with the way we normally live our lives. Just as we live most of our lives without remembering that we're living on a spinning ball of rock hurling itself round a star again and again and again, there are so many parts of our lives that are so constant, so normal, so ingrained that we just forget that they're there. I don't think about them and so I don't remember to be thankful for them. It's only when something in life changes speed that we are suddenly forced to reckon with all those things that spin around with us.
Things are changing speed for us at the moment. I can acknowledge the uncertainty that we're living with at the moment and that it's not easy. I don't have to compare myself to others to prove that my problems are significant. And yet at the same time I want to remember that there has been so much certainty in my life so far, so many things that I've assumed and never had to think about, so much (and I hesitate to use this word as it's a little loaded, but it's true) privilege. And these things, which I have done nothing to deserve, are all the good gifts of a generous Creator, and I have almost always neglected to thank and praise him for them.
But perhaps I can thank God for the opportunity that this uncertainty gives us to remember how many other things are still spinning with us.
