I don't know all the answers

This is one of my older poems but it rings true for me today.  Sometimes I just don't know why things happen, but I do know the one in whom I believe.


I'm trying to make sense of unfathomable things
I'm attempting to fit all the pieces
It's a lifetime puzzle of multiple options
And each day the conundrum increases


The picture starts coming together
But there's pieces as yet still unseen
Suggestions, idea's, possibilities
But how do I know what they mean?


I've tried to make informed decisions
Good, bad indifferent, who knows?
But I cannot help asking questions
Of the way that this life sometimes goes.


Questions of struggles between right and wrong
Conflicts of heart and of soul
Battles which threaten to tear us apart
Feelings that seek to control


Illness and death and sorrow and pain
Loss and bereavement and grief
Famine and drought and disaster
Things which would rock our belief


Glib answers are empty and useless
The world turns away with a sigh
So sometimes I have to be honest
And admit that I don't know why.


I don't know the answers to most of life's questions
But I know Him in whom I believe
And His plans and purposes find their fulfilment 
In ways that I cannot conceive


I don't need to know all the answers
I am safe for He has full control
He will finish the work He has started
I can say "it is well with my soul"


Karen Holmes
14 September 2006