My father, an intelligent, wise, godly man, has agreed to guest blog for me. He is launching his own blog as well, entitled
Just Sayin' @ rodgerwright.blogspot.com. Check it out sometime...
Trust
Someone has said, "Trust is one of the hardest things to gain and the easiest to lose." Yet trust is at the core of our relationships and especially our relationship with God. In fact, God says that it is "impossible" to please Him without faith.
What is faith? It is the belief in something or someone to the point of action. That takes trust! For a child, trust is easy because they haven't lived long enough to have their trust violated. However, it isn't long when that trust is violated by a friend, or even worse a parent.
The fact of the matter is this, if you have lived as long as I have lived then somebody has violated your trust! It happens. Even when the people who have offended had the best intentions at hand. Consequently, every time trust has been violated, it makes it harder to trust again. We build a cynisism in our being, walls to protect us, doors for a way out just in case.
The problem is, we relate to God in the same way. We say we have faith, but many times it is with a guarded attitude. We will not "launch out into the deep" (Luke 5:4, especially when it doesn't make sense), we instead push off the shore just far enough where we can easily jump out and get back to shore if we have to. Yet I have found in my experience that God never asks us to just push off the shore. No, He seems to ask us to jump off the cliff. It is like He makes it as hard as He can, where if we do only He can catch us or else we are just screwed!
A year and a half ago, my wife, Patti, and I came to a place in our lives and ministry that God was moving us to "launch." It made absolutely no sense whatsoever. I had established a church that was paying me a good salary, the church was debt free and seeing the lost come to Christ. My wife was running a successful business as a hair salon owner/operator. Our kids were off to college and succeeding, one daughter was married, our son in high school looking forward to his senior year in high school. I lived in South Florida and had recently picked up a hobby that I thoroughly enjoyed, surfing. I would surf three or four times a week, had a great tan and loving life. Yet there was something gnawing at my soul. I was comfortable and it was uncomfortable for me to be comfortable. It really began five years earlier but I kept saying no, it's just a phase. However, Patti was feeling the same discomfort. We began to seek what God would have us do, to make a long story short, we connected with a church in Philadelphia. Things were going great but it was hard, and things were not working out. In the process of time we ended up moving to Massachusetts to be near where one of my daughters live and serve in a church. We have since begun to be heavily involved in this church. Now I said all that to say this. We are in a place where we don't know what is going on in our lives. We have seen God work and meet our needs but it is difficult.
The point is we launched and the fruition of what God is leading us to has not happened yet. So the other day in one of those moments when you are frantic and fearful as to how we are going to make it, God showed me the following verse in Luke,
"But when Jesus heard what had happened, he said to Jairus, 'Don't be afraid. Just trust me, and she will be all right'."
The context of the story is as follows, Jesus was on His way to the house of a Jewish ruler of the local synagogue named Jarius. Jarius had come to where Jesus was to ask Him to come and heal his daughter. So Jesus obliged and began the trek to his house. All of a sudden, some of the servants came to meet Jarius to tell him not to bother Jesus because his daughter was dead. Wow! Jarius stepped out to trust Jesus and all for nothing. It is like his trust has been violated. Here's the deal, we struggle to trust God because often trust has been violated by others, especially those we value.
Can I be candid. I know I'm a pastor, I've been a Christian for over 30 years, this shouldn't be, but it is, sometimes I feel like God has let me down. Hey even David felt that way a time or two. I can imagine Jarius' heart sank into his gut when he heard those words, but then Jesus spoke. He said "Don't Be Afraid!" Are you kidding me? I mean really? His daughter is dead. No use going any further! Right? Wrong.
First take into consideration the person speaking. This is Jesus talking. You know the One who brought the universe into existance. Secondly listen to His offer, "just trust Me." We are not asked to trust in someone or something that can't deliver. I mean even those who love me and really have the best of intentions, who have made promises to me have failed, because they just can't deliver, but Jesus can, He is God!
When Jesus says "she'll be all right," She'll be all right! When I read that it was as though God was saying to me, 'Trust Me, I got this! So once again I was faced with the decision to launch into the deep. I'm glad that my Savior has my back. He doesn't have my back because I deserve it but because He loves me and has made a covenant to keep His promise!
I don't know how all of this will end up, but I know that He love me and He has this covered. Therefore I'll just trust Him. I will act upon my faith.
Just Sayin'
