Keep the Faith with Ty’Ann Brown: Clear the Confusion

Hello, everyone. I’m Ty’Ann Brown, encouraging you to keep the faith.

I think that everyone can agree that there is an awful lot of confusion these days. The pandemic has literally upended all of our lives, and many of us don’t know whether we’re coming or going.

Some of us, we don’t know what to do, and sometimes we don’t even know what to believe, like should we wear our mask or not? Should we go work in the office or work from home? Is it safe to take our kids to school? Can we even believe the statistics that are being presented to us? Just all utter confusion.

But it’s also likely that even before these strange times, you’ve experienced another type of confusion: spiritual confusion. Look, we’ve all been there. You know, those times when life is so hard and we question our faith, and we wonder, God, where are You? Are You even listening? Do You even see what I’m going through? You know, is this Your plan? And if it is Your plan, I don’t understand it at all.

Well, I do have good news for you. If you are feeling confused or if you’ve ever been confused, you are not alone. The Bible is chock-full of stories of people who were confused.

Let’s take Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father, for an example. This humble carpenter found himself in quite a pickle. His future wife is pregnant, and he can’t possibly know that this is God’s child, and furthermore, it was super scandalous to have a child out of wedlock, so of course, Joseph is completely overwhelmed. He’s feeling lost and, yes, confused. So what does he do? He follows God. He goes to Bethlehem, and of course there’s no room in the inn for Mary to have her child. She has to now have her baby amongst the animals.

Again, I’m pretty sure Joseph is finding himself very confused, not knowing what to do, and standing there asking God why. Why is this happening? But what does he do in that instance? He continues to take steps forward and follows the Lord. Psalm 37:23 tells us, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delights in his way.”

Now, many have mistaken that to mean that the person who is taking the steps should be delighted. Nope, it actually means that the Lord is delighted. See, the person who is faithfully putting their foot forward to follow in God’s path may very well be dismayed, angry, upset and, yes, confused.

But maybe the confusion is exactly part of God’s plan for our lives. Maybe that’s where we are strengthened the most in learning about our scripture and being strengthened in our faith as we wade through the heavy morass of confusion. That’s where God is delighted, and that’s why the next time you face confusion, I want you to read your Word and double down on your faith and begin to take steps, even if they’re baby steps, towards the path that God has laid out for your life. God bless you. Keep the faith.