“When I don't know what to do . . . I'll lift my hands . . . When I don't know what to say . . . I'll speak Your praise” the words of this song by artist Tommy Walker have spoke volumes to my heart in recent days. I wish you could hear this song. There’s a question posed by the lead singer, “When I don’t know what to do?” and the answer comes for the worship backup singers, “I’ll lift my hands,” “When I don’t know what to say” and they answer, “I’ll speak your praise”.

     I think the idea of wondering what we should do has been on all our hearts and minds, maybe more today than ever before. We’re still walking daily through this economic crisis. And honestly, things don’t look much better. “When I don’t know what to …” We all hope for better times, a faster economic recovery, a sense of peace and steadiness to return to our shattered financial worlds. And yet, things are still uncertain, unknown and troubling.

     I think many of us are reeling, leaning on uncertain things, unsteady things, looking for hope, but I think we get caught looking for it in the wrong places. I really like this song. It speaks to deep places in my spirit. Why? I’ll tell you why. This song speaks two profound truths that I think we need to remember in these hard times, or in any tough times that lie ahead. The first is this; “When I don’t know what to do – I lift my hands”. It reminds me that my life is really not about knowing what will happen, but really about being submissive to God in the midst of stuff, in the midst of difficulty, in the midst of unbearable things. We don’t and can’t know what will happen. That’s life. It’s uncertain, and life takes turns that maybe we wish it would never take. But in the midst of the when I don’t know what to do’s we do know who that carry us through. When we don’t know - we lift our hands to the One who does know. And we trust Him.

     The second thing I like about the song is this; when the question is asked by the lead singer, the answer always comes from the backup singers. It reminds me how desperately we need each other. We need our believing family to help us keep our perspective. It’s easy to let the news get you down. To lose hope. To lose heart. We need each other to help us stay focused that God is the Only One who will carry us through this mess and the next mess and the next. Not an economic stimulus package, or some other political solution. We need to speak that word of encouragement in the ear of those who are losing sight that our God really is in control of the economy, the election and even that job that you’re hoping to find.

     It’s all about submission. Surrender. Contentment. No, we don’t like what going on around us, but if it draws us to a deeper place of faith and intimacy with Jesus, then can these hard times really be all that bad? If it causes us to move to new place of surrender and trust in God’s total ability to supply our every thing, I find that a tough thing to see these current days as all bad. . .