The Rest is Still Unwritten...



As I was driving yesterday, I heard the song Unwritten playing on the radio. It's sung by an artist named Natasha Bedingfield, and even though it's been popular for a few years and I've heard it many times, the words grabbed my attention in a new way. Here's a part of the lyrics:

I am unwritten, can't read my mind,
I'm undefined.
I'm just beginning, the pen's in my hand, ending unplanned.

Feel the rain on your skin,
No one else can feel it for you,
Only you can let it in.
No one else, no one else,
can speak the word on your lips.
Drench yourself in words unspoken,
Live your life with arms wide open.
Today is where your book begins,
The rest is still unwritten.

Her poetry describes, I believe, precisely why we have the ability...at any given moment, to live a wonderful life! We live forward, not backward...and though our past experiences have brought us to where we stand today, they do not determine what we write as our story for tomorrow. I love the idea that no one else can experience our lives for us...no one else can feel the rain on my skin...no one else can speak the words on my lips...and the same is true for you.

In Proverbs 14, there is a verse that I've always found very compelling..."Each heart knows its own bitterness, and no one else can share its joy." Not in any way meant to be a "downer," this verse reminds us that we travel this journey as solitary beings...my journey is my own...and your journey is yours alone...even though we share our journeys with friends, lovers, family, and the like...no one else can speak your words, see what you see, feel what you feel. Your life is your story...and the rest is still unwritten!

In the gospel reading from today's Daily Office, the angel Gabriel visits Mary to tell her that she will become pregnant by the Spirit of God, and will give birth to the Messiah...what a story for her life! When she questions the angel about how this could possibly happen, he responds this way:

"Nothing is impossible with God."

And so it is with us...let us intentionally live with arms wide open, because nothing is impossible with God, and the rest is still unwritten.

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