Standing at the Edge

Trusting God

This morning I was looking through my husband's magazine, Backpacker. Such gorgeous pictures taken by some obviously adventurous folks bravely backpacking into remote areas. A particular headline piqued my interest - "Standing at the Edge". The photo was an early morning shot of Oregon's Crater Lake. The sun is just peeking up over the mountains on the far horizon. Dazzling!

That stunning photo was not the reason those words caught my eye. It was because those words describe how I, and probably many of you, feel right now. We just celebrated the beginning of an entirely new year. Stretching out before us is the vast unknown that is 2022, abounding with all the possibilities, triumphs, sorrows and tribulations that a new year might bring. Standing at the edge, a question in our hearts – if I take the step, can I really trust God to be there?

Lately I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about trusting God. Do I still trust Him? All the time? Some of the time? Can I learn to trust Him more completely? In 1978, when I was 27 years old, I was a broken and wounded single mother trying to figure out what had happened to me and whether my life would ever improve. That summer my little sister and her friends introduced me to Jesus Christ and His promise of hope. I was standing at the edge of a new and better life. I decided to trust Jesus with my heart and my life - just gave it all to Him - and never looked back.

I have never looked back, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t struggled with meeting the challenge of trust. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines trust as “firm belief in the character, strength or truth of someone or something.” I do believe that our God’s character is infallible, incapable of making mistakes, never failing. I do believe he is all powerful, capable of walking us through anything we might face. I do believe the Bible is true and what it says about Him is all true. However, sometimes there seems to be a chasm between believing those things and living like I do.

In the Good News Bible Proverbs 3:5 and 6 tells us this, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Never rely on what you think you know. Remember the Lord in everything you do, and He will show you the right way.” God has a plan for the right way. He is always working on His plan, even if we don’t see or feel anything. His plan is better than mine, or yours.

We say we want to learn to trust God with all our heart. Learning to trust Him requires us to find ourselves in places where we really need His help. Somewhere inside of us we think the lessons shouldn’t have to be so hard. If you are like me, you would much rather that God would sort of zap you and just make it happen. The truth is that the way we learn to trust Him is to experience situations where there are no other options. It is precisely in the midst of those super hard circumstances that we learn the most.

When your small baby is in the emergency room with a virus causing her temperature to rise to 106, you can only trust God with her life. When you watch your son, barely a man, walk down the airport runway on his way to fight a war in Iraq, you can only trust God with his life. When your dear mama is diagnosed with colon cancer at the age of 81, you can only trust God with the rest of her life. When your husband has faced unemployment for months, you can’t pay the rent and you are literally homeless, you can only trust God with your lives.

Those verses in Proverbs tell us, never rely on what you think you know. Up to that summer of 1978, people in my life had disappointed, rejected, abandoned and hurt me. What I thought I knew, and was pretty sure of, was that God would eventually do the same. I was living on the edge, waiting for the crash to happen. This is what I learned, and am very sure of – you cannot let whatever has happened to you in your life tell you who God is. Only God can say who He is. And His word verifies that He is loving, faithful and trustworthy. His presence and His guidance in all those life circumstances (I know you have a list too) have proven this to me.

During the last two years we have seen our world change in some pretty significant ways. For many, the very way we do life has changed. We have had reasons to feel unsafe, confused or afraid. Those verses in Proverbs also tell us to remember the Lord in everything we do. Friends, remember this. God is our refuge. He is our safe place. He is our rescuer. He is our very present help in times of trouble. Every step we take He takes with us. He is before us, behind us and beside us.

So, looking ahead into 2022, let’s lock arms and courageously move forward into all that God has for us. He is already there. He is covering our backs. He is locking His arms with ours. Relying on Him we cannot fail. I’m with you. Let’s make this year one of our best!