When I was a boy, one of the things that amazed me about my father was the way he always knew how to find places. I was too young to really understand the concept of a map (now a near bygone in the era of GPS).
All I knew was that once we hopped in the car, all you had to do was tell Dad where you wanted to go, and you’d get there. Now, whether due to growing up, today’s dependence on technology or something else, my days of just trusting I will end up where I need to be have long passed.
You can’t even trust navigation apps all the time. Once I spent a day in downtown London, running all over the place because my app was redirecting me in all the wrong directions!
I don’t think I am the only one who feels unsure about reaching my destination. It feels somewhat like being the man who wears suspenders and a belt. What does that say about us?
We don’t really trust our own instincts. We don’t really trust others trying to tell us how and where to go. We are uneasy about the accuracy of our techno-guidance. Yet, in the biblical book of Proverbs, we encounter these directives in chapter 3:5-6.
(5) Trust in the Lordwith all your heart;
do not depend on your own understanding.
(6) Seek His will in all you do,
and He will show you which path to take.
Verse 6 sounds fine to us. We can seek the will of God. We can read scripture. We can dice and parse and discuss what it says. We can discern the direction that God wants us to go. We can codify and indoctrinate beliefs and creeds. That’s fine with us. Why is that?
Perhaps it is because we are in control of it. We do the seeking. We do the discerning. It feels safe and good to us.
But verse 5! Verse 5 is way out of the comfort zone for many of us.
Just trust? Don’t depend on our understanding? Don’t depend on what we can know and see? Just let go of our control?
That is the stuff of nightmares in the dark of night. How could that ever work?
Answer the following question honestly in the quiet of your thoughts: “How are things working out for you when you are in control?”
The key word we need to focus on from our passage in Proverbs is the word “trust.”
Trust is defined as “the firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.” Trust is built upon experiences with someone. Trust grows as we perceive the caring, loving, trustful acts of another. We, as humans, make mistakes. We fall short. We break trust. A friend once told me, “I don’t trust anybody but me — and I’m still not sure about me!”
It is crucial to note whom today’s passage asks us to trust — the Lord.
Exploring requires us to leave where we are and go do something different. If where you are isn’t working for you or filling you, how about doing a little exploring to see who Jesus is and if He can be trusted?
Who knows what you might find. And isn’t that what exploring is all about?
—Terry Swenson, DMin, is director of University Spiritual Care at Loma Linda University.
