Tag: Trust

Trust

On By fosteringyourfaithIn Faith2 Comments

I do not believe that everything happens for a reason. I have witnessed – and perhaps you have, as well – too many awful events to believe that God is directing those circumstances.  I have seen people’s lives disrupted, plans ruined, hopes crushed, and futures dismantled by accidents, illness, and sometimes just plain evil. It would be a cruel God who would cause a horrific accident or a child’s illness or a devastating historical event in order to teach us a lesson. And I don’t believe in a cruel God. 

So that means that some things – often, many things – are beyond my understanding.  I do not have a satisfying answer to the question, “Why?”  Why do plans fall apart? Why do dreams get destroyed?  Why do the innocent so often suffer?

I do believe in a loving God who promises to show up.  I believe in the God of presence.  I believe God when God vows, “I will always be with you until the end of the age.” 

Lately I have been reflecting on some Bible passages about trust:

  • Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.   (Proverbs 3:5)
  • When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.  Psalm 56
  • Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.   Isaiah 26:4

Sometimes – often – things do not go as planned.  The future may appear murky. I am invited to place my trust in God – not because God is dictating every aspect of my life but because God has promised never to leave me or abandon me.

That means when I am facing daunting challenges, I trust that I won’t do it alone.  God has promised to be there when I need God most.

Life is not neat and tidy.  Personally, I cannot discover a reason for many events in my own life or in the world around me.  But I trust that God is on this journey with me. God offers strength and comfort. God invites me into renewing times of rest. God assures me that I can ask for help – from God and from the people God has placed in my life.

I trust that God is bigger than the overwhelming events in the world.

I trust that God’s strength will provide me the ability to go forward.

I trust that God’s wisdom can lead me through a maze of difficulties.

I trust that when I have reached my limit, I can turn everything over to God.  I don’t have to have all the answers.

I trust that when I fail, God will help me begin again.

I trust that God will always love me. 

And that will be enough, one day at a time.

PS: I commend Kate Bowler’s book Everything Happens for a Reason (and other lies I’ve loved) as well as her website www.katebowler.com

 

Holy Week: Good Friday

On By fosteringyourfaithIn Holy WeekLeave a comment

During Holy Week we are invited to consider Jesus’ final days and wonder what those events might say to us today.

It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.   (Luke 23: 44-46)

     Death comes in many ways; it can be tragic, gruesome, or unjust as Jesus’ was. It can also be a relief, a release, and a blessing. Death is a holy mystery that we cannot explain. A person embodies a physical presence and then – in a moment or after a lingering illness or tragically, unexpectedly – that person is no longer on this earth. They have gone to place we cannot follow. And though our love or relationship may still endure, we are separated from them in a way we cannot explain.

    Jesus was the Son of God. He did not have to suffer a human demise. Yet his willingness to endure death assures that I will not be alone when my own path inevitably leads me to the end of my days. He has gone before me. I visualize a trailblazer who will continue to guide me into the unknown beyond just as surely as he does right now.

     The death of another can leave us brokenhearted. Thoughts of our own death can paralyze us with fear. What can we learn from Jesus’ final act of courage? What does Jesus’ faith and trust tell us about the final moments of life? Can we turn ourselves and our loved ones over to God’s care with those same words, “Into your hands I commit my spirit”? Can we trust that our loved ones are safe in God’s care?

     Good Friday tells a sad story that nonetheless offers comfort and hope. God’s steadfast love endures forever – in life, in death, and beyond the life we know into life eternal.