God is Trustworthy

I never considered how important it is that to know that a person is good before establishing trust; but, the more I’ve thought about it, it is so true.

I see it in my patients. How at first they are tense until I find the right way to get to them to show them I am good, that I care and I am on their side… and only then do they truly trust me to help them stand up for the first time since a stroke. 

I recognize it in myself. How I keep a guard up until I sense compassion, caring, and goodness in someone; and then, then I place my trust. 

In the same manner we establish trust with God.  James Bryan Smith states “It does not matter that God is all-powerful or all knowing if he is not all-good. If he isn’t all-good, I will never be able to love and trust him” (p. 56).

I believe God is good, I do. I look around me at this Earth he created and the intricacy of the human body and I know I believe in a good and gracious God. For me I carry a different burden. 

Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane prays to his Father “ Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove… this….cup… from…. me..”

My cup? Control.  I believe I know what I need better than God does. 

Jesus  finishes… “yet, not what I want, but what you want” (Mark 14:36) 

It absolutely baffles me that in the face of death Jesus can say this. James Bryan Smith points out though that God was with Jesus every day continually blessing him and all that he did. Jesus was extremely aware of God’s greatness and goodness. As a result, Jesus was able to follow and trust  him even as he faced death.  

 James Bryan Smith further demonstrates through a quote by Thomas Smail that Jesus’ cry to God on the cross is clearly not one of fear or legal obedience but a “trusting response to known love”.  I think that is just so beautiful; this is the God Jesus knows and trusts. 

The spiritual exercise Smith asks me to practice this week is to journal the blessings in my life in attempt to become more aware of God's greatness  in hopes of building trust for the periods of darkness in my own life. 

I crave to be able to say "not what I want but what you want". I yearn to give up this piece of control I think I have and be what God wants. 

Questions… At what point though do I stop acting on opportunities and just be? This is where I have a hard time understanding the line of where I intercede in God’s plan and where I trust God to let the plan just fall in my lap.