Thursday, April 10, 2014

Ruthless Trust

2014.  I started this year with a word.  TRUST.  It is only April and already my journal about TRUST is a little more than half full.  Full of ways in which I have learned about this complicated word.  Actually the word came to me on the 15th of December.  The date in history that my mother passed away.  I wrote..."I have had so much trouble with TRUST.  Fear overtakes me...."
I spoke with someone recently who believes that he is "not sure we can ever really grasp all that this word asks of us"...and he is a pastor! 

I find the word everywhere.  I know it means that I just need to really work on it.  I see it in books that I read for leisure.  I just look up and say, "really God?" 
It is in my devotions, places I eat...saw this on a plaque on a recent breakfast trip.  "TRUST God that you are exactly where you are meant to be......"  I kind of liked that...I was meant to be eating breakfast!

Another time we were visiting a friend who had just had surgery.  Hidden by a lamp shade was a little saying.  I think it was just for my eyes.   Shining in the light were the words on a small plaque:  TRUST in Him at all times, pour out your heart before Him...Psalm 62:8

I was at Barnes and Noble the other day.  This book (above) just happened to jump into my arms!  I was first hooked by the word TRUST.  Upon further review, I saw the author.  Brennan Manning.  A Franciscan priest.  His writings are remarkable.
"the act of trust is a ruthless act..."
There is a good paragraph in the book that talks about Mother Theresa.  She asks someone, "What do you want me to pray for?"  The man says, "Pray that I have clarity."  She said firmly, "No I will not do that.  ......I have never had clarity; what I have always had is trust.  So I will pray that you trust God."
Brennan Manning goes on to write..."Craving clarity, we attempt to eliminate the risk of trusting God.  Fear of the unknown path stretching ahead of us destroys childlike trust in the Father's active goodness and unrestricted love."
"Mistrust to trust---a conversion that must be renewed daily..."

So much wisdom in the book.  This writer knows pain.  He lost his dear friend Rich Mullins who wrote such songs as Awesome God and Creed.  Brennan was a recovering alcoholic.  He understood life's pain.  He knew grace and was humbled. 

He writes..."Where am I in all this?  With you, clasping hands each morning and crying out in unison, "Lord Jesus, I trust you; help my lack of trust."

I can't wait to finish the book. 

What are you reading these days?
 


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