“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His purposes.”
“If God is for us, who can be against us?”
Count it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” (Romans 8:28, 31; James 1:2-4)
These words from Paul and James are familiar to most believers. They are favorite “go-to” verses for a lot of people. And, they read quickly. But, how often has a moment in life left us speechless in the presence of these familiar texts? Traveling across the terrain of thought encompassed in these texts was anything but a walk in the park. It more aptly resembled intergalactic travel!
I recall listening to a dear sister tossing these verses on the floor in a conversation a few years ago as she unloaded her struggle to trust God through a particularly difficult time in her life. She said, “I feel so weak. I feel so ashamed. I’ve known these verses all my life. I know how I should respond to this situation, but my heart is so distracted, heavy and weak. I just thought I was more mature than this.”
Ever felt like that? I have on more than one occasion. Trials can find the seam between knowledge and conviction and test its strength. And, it doesn’t take long for the test results to come back to us.
One of the misconceptions about faith is that if we know the truth we can (and should!) snap it into place when trials crash into our lives. Truth is, most of us don’t respond to hard times in an intellectually snappy way.
Graciously, God has scattered across the landscape of scripture realistic pictures of “trust in action”. In our hurry to get to a good verse on trust (and I confess I’ve done it more than once!) we look past these blessed pictures.
Throughout the book of Psalms the Spirit has given us psalms of lament. (Individual lament: 3, 4, 5, 7, 9-10, 13, 14, 17, 22, 25, 26, 27, 28, 31, 36, 39, 40:12-17, 41, 42-43, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 59, 61, 64, 70, 71, 77, 86, 89, 120, 139, 141, 14; Community lament: 12, 44, 58, 60, 74, 79, 80, 83, 85, 89, 90, 94, 123, 126, 129; Penitential: 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143; Imprecatory: 35, 69, 83, 88, 109, 137, 140). While many of the Psalms focus on praising God, a huge chunk of the book focuses on lament. The writers kick and scream at life situations. They throw familiar theology around the room like a bouncing ball. They lay it all on the living room carpet! They don’t work out faith in minutes; it takes days, weeks and months. Trial to trust is not a straight line.
Then there is Job. He was a righteous man. But, after a week of silence and “blessed be the name of the Lord”…well…he takes God to task. He rifles questions at God. He even curses the day he was born! Trial to trust is not a straight line.
Then there is Jesus. Even though his moves are in concert with His Father’s purposes and the knowledge of messianic scriptures are etched into his mind, he doesn’t turn himself in and say “let’s move to trial!” He collapses into prayer in the garden of Gethsemane…3 times. Hebrews 5:7 provides us with a glimpse into Jesus heart: “In the days of his flesh Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.” Even for the Savior, trial to trust was not lived in a straight line. It comes with difficulty, struggle and lots of emotion.
Surrendering our lives to God is a meandering road. Thoughts, impulses, questions, and emotions play off one another in the presence of “trust verses” when we are traveling across the rocky terrain of a particularly trying moment. Control. Security. Safety. Avoidance of pain. That’s how we’re wired. But, trust is so counter to who we are as human beings. “Speak Lord, your servant is listening” is a scary proposition. “Not my will, but yours be done” is equally unsettling. I’m not sure where the idea came from that we cruise through faith challenges with a bible and a calculator. The truth of the matter is nobody does it that way. Life hurts. We feel pain. The unknown scares us. And, to add insult to injury, to think that our “back and forth” in moments of trial is anything short of normal fuels our weakness and makes us vulnerable to the kind of collapse that the Evil One is hoping to achieve in our rocky moments.
Like you, I’m so thankful the Holy Spirit has blessed us with an honest picture of what trusting God looks and sounds like. The transparency of the psalmists. The candid speeches in the book of Job. Jesus’ example of how to wrestle trust into place. We need them all. We need them because “unpredictables” still happen. We need to know that it is okay to cry. To sit in silence before the Lord. To scream if need be. To ask people to pray for us because we don’t know how to pray. To tell God that we are in a strange situation and feel like infants who can’t tell their left hand from their right. It’s all part and parcel of how you fit yourself into the skin of trust.
Prayer
O Lord, thank you for being Faithful and True. Thank you for being near to us and promising that you will never forsake us. And, thank you for showing us what it means to stumble and stagger our way into your arms. Strengthen our hearts with such a reminder when we find ourselves in uncharted territory. When life doesn’t’ make sense. When we flat don’t know what to do next. Weave your word into our hearts in a more mature way that we might know you are with us in the “back and forth” that is our faith coming of age. Amen.
Randy Daugherty
Stephenville, Texas
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