Trust

November 21, 2007, 10:00 am; posted by
Filed under Articles, Chloe, Featured  | No Comments

In Starbucks the other day, a woman asked me to watch her purse, jacket, and shopping bags while she fetched her coffee downstairs. It struck me as ironic that she would trust me, a total stranger, with some of her most important belongings. For all she knew, I was a thief waiting for the chance she gave me. In all honesty, I thought she was a total moron for trusting me, not because I shouldn’t be trusted, but because no one should be trusted.

When Adam and Eve ate from the tree and betrayed God, an innate inability to trust sprung up alongside sin in humanity. Because we as individuals know that we should not be trusted, we instinctively do not trust anyone else, particularly God. He is, after all, the One we betrayed. It’s like we’re just waiting for Him to get back at us when we least expect it.

This isn’t just true of non-believers or people who have been hurt by Christianity. I, for one, am struggling daily with giving even an inch to God for fear of what He’ll make me do, what He’ll make me give up. There are some things in this life I’ve decided I can’t live without, and I just know that if I trust God, He’s going to take that chance to get back at me. Just like I deserve.

Trusting God and giving up control over our lives is not easy, especially when we have everything planned out with careers and relationships, budgets and schedules. Who knows, maybe God will ask you to give up your office or teaching job to do His work in the Congo or Zimbabwe. My fear is that God will tell me to give up writing to go do something awful and miserable, something I’ll hate and will eventually kill me. Something like teaching high school.

Will He? I don’t know, which is one of the reasons I haven’t let go yet. But I’ve been told God doesn’t work like that. He doesn’t give gifts and then forbid us to use them. Obviously, I don’t believe that yet, so if you’re struggling with the same thing, let me be an encouragement to you. You aren’t alone in your wrestling. I’m praying for you, and I’ll ask you to pray for me, and then hopefully one day soon we’ll take that step and let Him direct our lives. I wish you the best.


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