It’s OK Not to Know

How many times have you said, “but I don’t know”? If you’re anything like me, you’re not perfect. You don’t have all the answers. You do your best but some days, you just don’t even know what you need.

What if I said, that’s OK? Has anyone ever given you permission to not know?

I will.

Actually, there’s a lot of freedom in saying, “I don’t know”. I remember in my days of being in customer service positions, there were certain things we were never to say; “I don’t know” was only a partially acceptable statement by management.

It needed to be followed by; “but I will find out and get back to you.” It was never good customer service simply to admit that we didn’t know the answer to something.

Newsflash, though; nobody expects us to know everything, on the spot. If they did, that would be highly unrealistic, wouldn’t it? I mean there will always be something even for the brightest of the brightest and that’s simply because we are not God.

So if you’ve never been in that position, does it give you anxiety to “not know”? It did for me – for many years. There’s freedom in being real though folks. There’s freedom in saying “I don’t know”.

So I’ll go a bit further with that…What if I said knowing what you don’t need in your life, is just as important as knowing what you do?

How often have you found yourself in a place in life where you’ve said this to yourself, or someone else? “I don’t know what I need right now?” Has it too caused anxiety? For me it has.

But have you thought about it this way? It’s OK to not know? It’s more than OK because sometimes, knowing what I don’t need, is an important (if not more so at the time) as knowing what I do. It’s looking at the situation that’s inspired the question from a place of deduction; I don’t really know the answer to my need here, but I know what I don’t need.

That’s still an answer. Maybe the one we need the most in that moment even.

Sometimes life’s moments of confusion require just being still. “When in doubt, don’t” was always a tidbit of recovery wisdom shared with me and sometimes it was the answer, sometimes I need to move too, but when I know what I DON’T need and I don’t know what I do, I’m still on my way to my answers. Both, are important.

Both also lead me to ask myself, what is the “next right thing”. Be still? Make a move? What if I don’t know what I don’t need either?

God doesn’t leave us hanging. His wisdom, the Bible states, is something he gives to us generously when we ask (James 1:5).

Now, THAT is some good news we can use today! He doesn’t say we’ll have the answers to every question in this lifetime, He gives us what we need, but rest assured, if it’s wisdom we need, He’ll provide it if we are seeking – if we ask. He will show us that next right thing. With prayer and the people in our lives that support our spiritual walk and recovery from life’s woundedness, we will get our answers.

I often ask for what I don’t need in my life, as well as what I do. I don’t have to have anxiety over that today because I know God will give me the wisdom as per His Word, as I identify either what I do or don’t need. He will for you too.

Just for today, just know, it’s OK, when we don’t know. We will.

Be well my friends,
KM