This being the day before Easter, it seemed like an appropriate time to write this article. It’s been brewing in the back of my mind for some time. Yet now, with everyone having to stay-in, slow down and wait…with Easter coming but not yet here…it seems like a good time to talk about trust.
You see, last year I received a promotion to a management position. Stepping into that role has been a blessing, but from the beginning I knew it meant I would have to deal with many unpleasant tasks. Early on I was faced with a situation that left me burdened and feeling helpless. I was at the mercy of the choices of others, yet I was going to have to live with the repercussions of those choices. In many ways it was a violation of many values that I hold close and the fact that I was powerless to change the circumstance left me feeling weak and hollow.
I prayed, but my prayers felt weak. I know my faith was. So, I resigned myself to my fate and prepared deal with the fallout from this decision that was going to hurt people who I saw as needing help. I also wondered if I was doing all I could do and if the situation hadn’t come about in part because of my own failures. I lost sleep over it and it affected my relationships at home, at work and at church. Looking at the personalities involved I knew that the decisions coming down were not going to be reversed.
Well, as you can probably guess…it was reversed. First, it was delayed, then it was changed to the best possible outcome. As I got word that my doomsday scenario was not going to happen I could hear God’s quiet voice asking me, “Now…will you trust me with tomorrow?”. I realized in the moment that leading up to that moment, I had been regarding man’s will (others decisions and their authority) to be greater than God’s. While I understood it conceptually, practically speaking I had forgotten that God was greater. Greater than anyone’s decisions, mistakes, plans or schemes. That the heart of the king really is in His hand.
We can talk a pretty good talk, us Christians. We love to sing about faith that moves mountains, a God that breaks chains, a Savior that saves from…everything. Then, when the reality of hardship hits, we act as though history can only be moved by the movements of men and not by the hand of a loving, sovereign God. We pray, but more as a source of comfort rather than as an actual act of faith–believing that God hears, responds and moves. Maybe you say that isn’t you. Really? Tell me, do you feel frustrated right now because you feel powerless to change what is happening in the world? Have you prayed for your leaders? Do you believe that God is willing to move and use them, or do you speak and act as though what the leaders of your country choose to do is the final word? Or are the only solutions you argue for political ones?
Leading up to that day at my company, I was praying and saying some of the right things, but practically speaking I was acting like an atheist. Somehow, I had lost sight of the very real fact that God is good and delights to act in the affairs of mankind. It brings to mind that the thing Jesus seemed to rebuke his disciples for most was a lack of faith in Him. Not a lack of action, not a lack of sacrifice, but a lack of trust.
So with so much uncertainty in the world…how is your trust? Maybe you feel like you’ve trusted God in the past and been burnt (been there). Maybe all that is going on in the world right now–death, disease, economic collapse–seems so much bigger than the God you believe in. But let me tell you, none of that is bigger than the God who is. It may be that we are simply being stripped down and disempowered to the place that we will have to trust God, or die. Maybe what is at issue here is not the sinfulness of our society, but the faithlessness of “believers”. Maybe, just maybe, this is a loving Father’s way of getting the attention of His children so He can remind us of who He is…and that He is.
We can trust Him with tomorrow. It’s not that He will necessarily give us what we want, but He will give us what is best. He is able to do abundantly more than we could ever think to ask, so let’s turn to Him. Make trusting God your plan A, B and C. Then let’s watch as he brings beauty from these ashes.
The Problem Of Being Alive 