by Lynn Blackburn @LynnHBlackburn 

My boys were both privileged to have the same wonderful teacher in preschool, Mrs. Rhonda. 

She was responsible for teaching awesome tips like how to hold onto your sleeve when you put on a jacket so your sleeve doesn’t wind up over your elbow. I think we can all agree this is a crucial skill for the preschool set.

She also had some fun little sayings. “One, two, three, eyes on me!” This one worked great for her (for some reason, it was less effective when I employed it in our home).

Without a doubt, my favorite saying was, “You get what you get and you don’t pitch a fit!”

We’ve handed out crayons and you wanted a different color? “You get what you get and you don’t pitch a fit!” 

We’re having cupcakes and you wanted the one from the far left corner instead of the far right? “You get what you get and you don’t pitch a fit!”

I’ve been thinking about this a lot because I’m prone to pitching a fit when I don’t get what I want. And I haven’t been getting what I want a lot lately. I don’t think I’m alone in this. For most of us, 2020 isn’t going to go down as the year when all our dreams came true. 

And for those of us with writing aspirations, 2020 has been tough. Established authors are trying to figure out how to meet deadlines while sharing computers and space with children and spouses who are now at home. All.The.Time. Pre-published authors are wondering if they’ll ever see their dream of publication come true as conferences go virtual and no one can predict what will happen next. Bottom line: This is not what any of us wanted.

BUT – If I believe that God is both Sovereign and Love—and I do—then when something comes my way, shouldn’t I take it without throwing a hissy fit? 

Gulp.

Of course, there is a place for lament. We see it in Job. We see it in Ruth as Naomi laments her lot in life. The Psalms are full of them. And 2020 has given us plenty of reason for legitimate lament.

But lament isn’t the same thing as whining. Lament cries out against the injustice of a situation while declaring and trusting in the Sovereignty of God. Whining cries out against the injustice of a situation while doubting the goodness of God and insisting on our own personal sovereignty.

The truth is that most of the time, I can’t even pretend I’m lamenting a situation. I’m pitching a fit because I don’t like the way things have worked out. I want to be in control, and I’m seriously ticked off that I’m not.

I may might definitely have control issues.

I want the blue crayon, the cupcake with the chocolate icing, and I want my writing career to go the way I planned it thank you very much. And relinquishing my desire for control? Submitting to another plan? Choosing to rely on the Father who loves me rather than my self? I feel helpless to figure this out. It feels hopeless.

Because it is. 

If I try to manufacture this dependence on my own, I will fail.

If I try to work harder to be more patient, I will be spectacularly unsuccessful.

If I try to pretend everything is okay on the outside when I’m losing it on the inside, I will eventually explode all over everyone unfortunate enough to be near me. (This is my default mechanism—believe me when I say the explosions aren’t pretty).

So what am I supposed to do? I’m a task-oriented girl. I want a plan!

And how does God answer my lament whining? Not with a detailed action plan, but with one command.

Abide in Me.

To abide is to remain, to stay. It’s a state of being, but I have things I need to be doing!

So then He reminds me of this . . .

John 15:4-5 (ESV) – Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can DO NOTHING. (emphasis mine)

There’s no way around it. The only way to make sense of any of this, the only way to move forward, the only way to have the strength to do what God has called us to do in the midst of so much upheaval and uncertainty is to abide in Him.

It will take a lifetime of practice, and I’m not sure what it will look like. But I suspect that one of the fruits of abiding in Christ is being able to accept whatever He gives, whenever He gives it, however He chooses to give it.

Without pitching a fit.

I don’t know how to do this, but I suspect my Abba is smiling at me and whispering, “One, two, three, eyes on Me.”

Grace and peace,

Lynn H. Blackburn loves writing suspense because her childhood fantasy was to become a spy—but her grown-up reality is that she’s a huge chicken and would have been caught on her first mission. She prefers to live vicariously through her characters and loves putting them into all kinds of terrifying situations—while she’s sitting at home safe and sound in her pajamas!

Her Dive Team Investigations series kicked off in 2018 with Beneath the Surface and In Too Deep (A SIBA Okra pick and Selah Award Finalist). The 3^rd book in the series, One Final Breath, released September 2019 and is a 2020 Selah Award finalist. She is also the author of Hidden Legacy and Covert Justice, which won the 2016 Carol Award for Short Novel and the 2016 Selah Award for Mystery and Suspense. Lynn lives in South Carolina with her true love and their three children. You can follow her real life happily ever after at LynnHBlackburn.com and @LynnHBlackburn on Bookbub, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.