I've been reading through a book named "The Adventure of Holiness". One of its chapters talks about God calling us. Actually, the thought that amazed me was that calling someone means taking the risk. Why? Because that someone might not hear, might not understand and might not want to respond. God calls us, but He always gives us a choice. Isn't that amazing? The Creator of the universe grants free will to His creations, to His loved creations. It's so simple and so incredible at the same time.
So I was thinking about trust. Isn't it one of the most fragile things in our lives? It's something that can easily be destroyed and so difficult to build again.
When we are born into the world we tend to trust everyone and everything. But as we grow up through our own painful experiences we learn not to trust. We get hurt and we choose caution instead of trust.
In our society full of various formalities, where emotions are strictly scaled and feelings are considered to be an expression of weakness, we learn to hide our true selves behind a wall of self-control and prudence. Often we are so afraid to be misunderstood or rejected that we even choose not to offer help when we know people need it. And how does that work with the commandment "love your neighbor as yourself"?
For the sake of the same reasons we are afraid to tell people about God's love, about His work in our lives, about the ways He can change their lives as well. Yes, we are afraid to get hurt, to be rejected when sharing something so important for us. These are beautiful excuses. But there are rough words that stand behind our reasoning: we are ashamed of our faith and our dependence on God and we doubt that God can change lives of other people and that He can actually work through our words and lives. Now, how does that work with the commandment "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind"?
We are afraid to trust God... It's rather ironic, considering that He holds the world including our lives in His hands. Yet, we are afraid to trust Him with our particular thoughts, deeds, hopes... We are afraid to talk about God, because we think it's us, who witness and not the Spirit of God. We are afraid to serve people, because we think it's through our strength and not through His power. We are afraid to trust God because we want to receive His blessings, but we do not want to receive His love. We desire the result of His promises, but we don't want to trust His word and to follow it.
We are afraid to trust God with our hopes and plans. We'd like to let Him do whatever is included into our view of the situation and show His might in giving us what we want, but we afraid to give Him our desires completely and trust His will in our lives.
When I think about being afraid to trust God, I try to remember how much He trusts us. He knows our sinful nature, He knows we can betray Him, He knows our weaknesses and still He trusts us to be His children. He trusts us to walk with Him. He helps us to get up each time we fall, He forgives us each time we repent. Isn't it the amazing evidence of His love and His trust?
Jesus came to the Earth to be rejected, to be humiliated, to suffer, to be crucified and to resurrect in order to save each one of us. How many of us would agree to go through something similar, knowing that our sacrifice might not even be accepted? I doubt that we would. He did. He knew that even the ones who accept His priceless gift would still hesitate, would stumble and fall down again and again, but He was willing to bring us salvation. And He still is. Isn't that the most incredible evidence of His love and His trust?
The least we can do in response is to give Him our lives and love the Lord our God with all our hearts and with all our souls and with all our strength and with all our minds and to love our neighbors as ourselves, because one is impossible without the other.
Praise be to the Lord!
