We Know This

Saturday Night Live is not generally where I get inspiration for writing these blog posts. I am old and have to be up way too early on Sunday mornings to make it through much of the late-night comedy show any more. As a teenage babysitter and a college Young Life Leader constantly in need of funny skit ideas, this show was at one time a hilarious staple in my Saturday. Now, though, I just catch the clips that are shared during the week and try to act cool by writing about them. I promise this is going to go somewhere.

Much of the internet has been sharing this specific clip from SNL’s “Weekend Update” this past Saturday. And since that has always been a favorite segment of mine, I clicked on it yesterday to see what all the fuss was about.

And then I could not stop thinking about it.

Kate McKinnon, a regular on SNL, comes onto the Weekend Update stage as a new character, Dr. Wenowdis pronounced (We. Know. This). She is on the show to answer some questions about what is going on in the world, and she simply answers by repeating her name over and over again. It’s pretty hilarious. But then toward the end of the segment, she loses her composure a bit. Unable to control her laughter, she breaks character and just talks to the audience. This is actually the part that is golden. CLICK HERE to watch the clip before you keep reading. I know that some of SNL’s material is inappropriate – this is not. Also, I am not trying to make any type of political statement here. I simply want to talk about what she says at the end of the sketch about why she created the Dr. Wenowdis character.

As she breaks down in laughter, McKinnon holds her head in her hands and asks the questions many of us have been asking for months. Who will win this election? When will this pandemic end? Is the world going to be ok?

“We don’t know this,” she says. “It is nice to play a character who has all the answers,” she continues. And then she tries to say what we do know. “Well,” she says, “there is one thing we do know …” and she trails off. “We do not know this..” Dr. Wenowdis is unable to put into words what we do know. And I get it. I really get it. As did most of the world based on the likes and shares this clip got.

I don’t think many of us have never lived through a season where we were more aware of what we do not know. So much of life these days feels out of control and out of our hands. As I prepare to send my middle schooler back to face-to-face learning, I have spent many sleepless nights wondering if I am putting our family at risk. As I go to work and interact with people on a daily basis and make decisions that seem to have no good answer, I question every single thing I do or don’t do. Even participating in conversations seems to be dangerous these days. I run my own words on rewind in my brain wondering if I said the wrong thing. There is so much we do not know. That’s why the Dr. Wenowdis character struck such a chord. We want to know things.

And mostly, we just want to know that things are going to be ok.

But, as I watch the clip again, I find that I want to fill in the blanks for her. When she seems uable to articulate what we do know, I want to tell her — and since I do not know Kate McKinnon– I want to tell you. And I want to remind myself. We do know things. And the things we know are important. So very important.

We know that God is still on his throne. We know that he is not confused or overwhelmed by all that is going on in the world. We know that he still has a plan and that he is working his purposes out whether we can see it or not.

“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever. He knows all, does all: He changes the seasons and guides history, He raises up kings and also brings them down, he provides both intelligence and discernment … He sees in the dark and light spills out of him” (Daniel 2:20-22 MSG).

In these days of not knowing, I have been finding much comfort in the story of the prophet Daniel. That’s who prayed that prayer I quoted above. Daniel was a servant of the Lord, but also a captive in a foreign land. He and his people watched as the Babylonians came in and destroyed their way of life and took them far from their home forcing them to submit to the rule of some crazy kings.

How can this destruction be part of God’s plan? How can God be in any of this?

Daniel did not know this. But, he just kept declaring that God sees all and that he knows all; that God can see in the dark and that light pours out of him. Daniel kept pointing to what he knew to be true even when his world was turned upside down.

How can we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? That’s the question Daniel’s contemporaries ask on the shores of Babylon. And the question comes to us like this: How can we be certain God is still in charge when everything seems out of control? What do we do when we don’t “know this”?

We declare what we do know. We rehearse what is true; so that we can remember.

We do know that trouble and chaos are to be expected in this world. Jesus is very clear with his disciples about it. “In this world, you will have trouble, but take heart I have overcome the world.”

But he also says:

You are the salt of the earth and the light that shines from a city on a hill. Abide in me and I in you. Apart from me, you can do nothing. You are meant to go and sing songs of joy in a foreign land. You are meant to go and point to what you do know in a world that is spinning out of control searching for what it does not know.

These are the things we rehearse. These are the things that we know.

And in this season where everything feels overwhelming and broken, I am slowly learning how to find my bearings. We are not meant to do this alone. The Lord of heaven and earth is with us. He goes before us; he walks beside us. He hems us in both behind and before. We can go nowhere from his Spirit; and we are never out of his sight.

These are the things we rehearse. These are the things that we know.

Even in this. Even in this upside-down place where there are more questions than answers; more problems than solutions; more arguments than agreements. Jesus’s promise to his disciples still rings true to each one of us, And lo I am with you always even to the ends of the earth. So yes, yes we can learn to sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land; in a place where nothing feels certain. We can trust him to bring light into the darkness because, well …

We. Know. This.

Light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.

Alleluia. Amen.