Bible Verse: Isaiah 42:16 (NIV) “I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.” If you’re anything like me—a planner who likes to know how the next phase of life will unfold—then you understand the desire to take control. To steer the wheel yourself. To make only the turns you’ve carefully chosen and avoid the ones you promised yourself you wouldn’t take. In many ways, this isn’t so different from New Year’s resolutions, or as people often say, “new year, new me.” We enter a new season with hope, lists, visions, and expectations—certain that this time, things will go exactly as planned. But sometimes I pause and wonder: how long do these plans really last? Maybe by March, things already feel uncertain. By June, you’re wondering how half the year is gone and what happened to the goals you once...
Some stories in Scripture feel uncomfortably familiar. They show us not only faith and miracles, but also impatience, broken relationships, and the struggle for survival. One of those stories is that of Sarah, Abraham, and Hagar. It’s not a tidy narrative. There’s frustration, pain, blame, and running away. And yet—woven through it all—we see the covenant-keeping faithfulness of God. The Weight of Waiting Sarah had waited years for a child. Every passing season must have deepened her ache, especially in a culture where barrenness was a heavy stigma. Out of desperation, she offered her Egyptian servant, Hagar, to Abraham as a way to “solve” the waiting. Abraham agreed, and soon Hagar was pregnant. But instead of solving the problem, the household unravelled. Hagar despised Sarah. Sarah mistreated Hagar. Abraham stood torn in the middle. What began as a human solution quickly gave rise to resentment and division. The God Who Sees the Overlooked Hagar fled into the wil...