Greetings Trekker,
This old trekker (by the way friend, in case you’ve wondered, a trekker is simply a “follower of Jesus”) has been grappling recently with the word “trust”. I don’t mean trusting God for “salvation” provided through the Lifegiver, Jesus Christ. That kind of trust is basic for a trekker. Life only begins when we place our faith in the death and resurrection of the Majestic One.
No… I am thinking about the word trust as it unfolds (or does not) in the life daily of one who is a follower of Jesus. If life “is what happens when we’ve made other plans”, if “stuff” happens, if accidents occur, if our pleas for specific intervention by the Divine do not get answered as we prayed and hoped they would… how then does trust play out in our lives? How do we respond? This is the issue. Where is trust when “all hell breaks loose”, as the saying goes?
The classic scriptural illustration of the test of practical trust is the life of Job. Let’s not forget how the debacle started. God and Satan were having a dialogue, and God said, “Have you considered my servant Job. There is no one on earth like him, he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” Satan counters that Job is simply fearing (respecting) God because he has been blessed, and tells God that if you “strike everything he has, he will curse you to your face.” So…the book of Job is about a man trusting God through the most dire of all circumstances falling upon him day after day, thus proving God’s correct evaluation of Job in the first place. His heart was right before God… “Though He slay me, I will trust in Him.” Job’s trust was in the character of God, total belief and reliance upon the ultimate goodness of God, even though unfolding catastrophe suggested otherwise.
Somewhere in church history, trust in the character and faithfulness of God devolved into trust (or hope) for what God could and would do for me. Personal expectations became co-mingled with God’s goodness. “If I trust God, all will come up roses.” Yes, God desires to bless His children and give us good gifts (Matthew 7:11), but His gifts are His Spirit to make us like Himself, to serve others, and to demonstrate the goodness of God, not to make us circumstantially and frothily happy, by making us rich in possessions, good health, etc.
A fellow trekker is my close friend and workout buddy. His wife came down with MS many years ago. Now in their fifties, this dear couple are “salt of the earth”, “light of the world”, people. Though life and career were changed overnight, they have gone forward, not somehow, but triumphantly in Jesus, trusting Him to go through the never ending challenges of life. And there have been other life altering storms for them. Yet, without the clarity of “why” being answered, they have remained faithful followers of Jesus and to each other. That is background… recently a lady was talking to my friend’s wife about all the difficulties, unfairness, hardships, etc. she was having. It was an appeal for pity, perhaps. (I wonder if the caller forgot to whom she was speaking.) Finally, my dear trekker friend’s wife had heard enough, and with honesty, integrity, and candor in love, said to her friend, “That’s life. Suck it up, cupcake!” What powerful words for we pilgrims in life!
Practical faith is about our response when God does not answer our prayers as we’ve prayed them. Ours is not to understand, we can’t; ours is to trust a loving God. Simple trust will never produce clarity “on this side”. We know and understand always “in part”. Demanding clarity can undermine trust. Simple trust will, however, bring peace. “You (O God) will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in You.” (Trekker, read now all of Isaiah 26 before going further with this MEN. You’ll be glad you did.)
Robust trust shines like the eternal beacon of truth it is when it could be so easy to be faithless. That is the teaching of the book of Job, of Isaiah and of my sister above – a great prayer warrior and woman of God. How strong, how resilient are we as we live and trust in a sea of pain and unmet expectations?
True citizenship in the Kingdom of God is not defined by our knowledge of theology, nor demonstrated by what we accomplish, but in how we respond to the unpredictable, often disappointing drama of everyday life. Such “proof of relationship” is a matter of trust, a commitment of the heart to the Father. “The sounds of inner peace, harmony, and consonance resonate in the heart attuned to the Father’s will…” Brennan Manning.
Psalm 46:10 is so powerful at this juncture. “Be still, and know that I am God!” Manning’s commentary here is priceless: “It means that I don’t figure out, I don’t analyze. I simply love myself in the experience of just being alive, of being in a community of believers (followers of Jesus), simply knowing that it’s good to be there, even if I don’t know where “there” is or why it’s good. An inner stillness assures me that it is enough right now to be centered, to be in Christ Jesus, and that gratefulness is both the heart of living and the heart of prayer.” AMEN trekker! Well-spoken by a brilliant writer, alcoholic, failure in marriage… a sinner like you and me.
Trekker, Jesus is forever dying, rising and interceding that we might trust His goodness, His purposes, His reign throughout history. Maybe we’ll see the underside one day, the tapestry which is beautiful but bewildering often to the human mind and experience. “His ways are not our ways”, the Old Testament prophet Isaiah reminds us. Just keep in touch with Jesus, trekker. Follow in His footsteps. Learn the thrill of unforced rhythms of grace as you wait patiently on Him! The lion of Judah is not tame, but He is good…always and forever.
Simply trusting day-to-day, your friend,
Jim Meredith