Can everything in our life be boiled down to our trust in God? When we are faced with decisions or circumstances in our life, are there God trusting decisions and “not” trusting God decisions in each situation? When Jesus says in Matthew 6 that we are to “seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and then all these things will be given to you,” is he really saying trust me? How many times did he say, “oh you of little faith?” Isn’t that another way of saying “you don’t trust me?” And it wasn’t just Jesus, all through the Old Testament God pleaded with Israel to believe that He wanted to take care of them and bless them.
Last summer our family made our annual excursion to the Evergreen State Fair. Our kids pleaded with us to allow them to purchase bracelets that gave them an unlimited amount of rides, we said that would be fine but they would need to put the bracelets to good use, i.e. you need to ride the rides. As the day went on I noticed that one of my boys was sticking to the little rides and I challenged him to step out of his comfort zone and try some more adventurous rides. He expressed his great lack of desire to do that so I offered to buy a bracelet myself and go on them with him. To make a very long story short, even with my new bracelet he refused to go on the rides. I sat down on a bench with him and explained that his dad was with him so there was no need to fear and that I would be very selective about the rides I would choose because I knew him well and would not force him to do something that I thought would really scare him, he needed to trust me. Finally, we narrowed it down to the ride “1,000 Arabian Nights” and stepped into line. Once we were on the ride and it began to speed up to full pace, I looked at the my son’s face and was sure that he was going to deposit his lunch in my lap, he had his hands held up in front of his chest and was shaking like he had just seen a ghost. It was one of those times as a father that you are convinced that you have just committed your child to several years of therapy to erase the emotional damage you just inflicted on them. As I put my arm around him and started to encourage him that the ride was just about over he looked up at me with those eyes that say, I told you I wouldn’t like this, and began laughing, uncontrollably and yelling “this is great, I like it”! We spent the rest of our afternoon exploring some new rides but mostly enjoying each others company and talking about trust. Later that night as I laid in bed thinking through the whole incident I heard God say to me, “do you get it yet?” “Get what?” “I’m your father and you need to trust me too?” God is so subtle!
There are so many things in life that I feel are completely out of my control or that are going to end up in failure. I can let my mind run away with a thought that ends up with me figuratively puking in someones lap, but most likely it manifests itself in losing sleep or taking my attention away from my family or making a decision that has long term effects because I was seeking short term relief. All stemming from my lack of trust in God’s care for me.
So, can everything in our life be boiled down to our trust in God?
Thoughts?
