trusting God

Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not rely on your own insight.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
Do not be wise in your own eyes;
fear the LORD and turn away from evil.
It will be a healing for your flesh
and a refreshment for your body.

Proverbs 3:5-8; NRSVue

A mentor and good friend, my senior in more ways than one often tells me something like, “Trust God,” although the way he expresses it seems better than just that. The words you hope go deep down into your soul, your very being, and change you, a likely gradual change with many fits and starts, steps forward and a step or two back. It seems to us as humans that life is up to us. We either make it work or not, do the right thing or fail to do it. But the wisdom of Proverbs has a different take on this.

First, the necessity of a wholehearted, unreserved trust in God. Well, what are we going to get perfect in this life (or I wonder myself, in any life, for that matter)? We should never look for some kind of perfection in trying to “trust and obey.” It should be a commitment. Something like, “God, I really don’t get this well. It doesn’t jive with my experience. But I’m committed to it, entirely so, as much as I know how, only through your grace and help.” Something like that.

The next word is just as important, because when push comes to shove, we just naturally go to our default. We’re not to lean or rely on our own insight. It seems like some serious unlearning is likely in play here for most of us. I will grant exceptions, like in the case of my wife, who has the most wonderful, childlike (not childish) faith in God. For whatever reasons, although I think I’ve made significant progress, I still struggle in my faith. I like to understand just how things work and lacking that, I find it hard to trust. It seems to me that I have to accept that there’s something of mystery, mysticism, just not being able to grasp exactly all that is at play here, God’s ways, so that I have to trust both the process and outcome that is in God’s hands, and that, in spite of the inevitable mistakes I’ll make along the way.

Next is the word that we’re to, in my words, look to God in all of our circumstances, with the promise that God will make straight our paths. The NET footnote (verse 6) is helpful here. I think the NIV and NLT are also helpful here.

in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:6; NIV

Seek his will in all you do,
and he will show you which path to take.

Proverbs 3:6; NLT

Acknowledging God means to depend on, trust in, and be obedient/submissive to. I like the idea in the NLT of seeking God’s will in all we do, but I admit, I’m a bit skeptical of the rendering suggesting that God will show us which path to take. Maybe that is the case in the sense that as we apply wisdom, we can make a good, reasonable decision at that moment in time, the process not free from trial and error, and never infallible. And as it says elsewhere in Proverbs (11:14; 15:22), not apart from the wise counsel of others. At the very least, God will honor our full commitment to trust and obey God, insofar as we understand that.

The final word here is to not be wise in our own eyes, but to fear God and turn away from evil, with the promise that as we do so, we will be refreshed in body and spirit. I do experience something of this, even if not as much as I should, due to my all too often weak faith. No matter what hangs over my head, or what lies ahead, I can find something of God’s rest.

As my brother, friend and mentor keeps reminding me, “Trust God.” Yes, it may seem trite, something many of us have heard in some form or another since our childhood days in Sunday School. But it can make a world of difference, the difference we definitely need.

“Jesus, you have the words of eternal life.”

Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

John 6:66-69; NRSVue

In our hymnal, in morning and evening prayer in the back, we run across the words, “Jesus, you have the words of eternal life,” just before the gospel reading (meaning a reading from either Matthew, Mark, Luke or John). Those words are taken from John 6 which is an important, interesting read in itself. Certainly, it would be included among Jesus’s “hard teachings.” He talks about the necessity of eating his flesh and drinking his blood. From those words came the church’s teaching on the Eucharist with “the real presence of Christ” in both the wafer and the wine. The Anabaptist understanding of this would be that we partake of this reality by simple faith understood with it to be a full commitment to Christ sealed in water baptism. I actually have some respect for the former. We once were a part of an Anglican fellowship, and if I wouldn’t have found the Mennonite fellowship we’re now a part of, we may have settled for an Episcopalian fellowship. I’m glad to be back to my Anabaptist Mennonite roots and prefer the latter interpretation. And I might add to that the thought that by faith we become immersed in Christ as Christ’s body so that the distinction between us and Christ is all but lost in the communal, experiential aspect. Christ as the God-human (both fully God and fully human) remains forever unique and distinct from us, but we are taken into the family of God not only in terms of adoption, but in a complete union so that we are partakers of Christ’s very life, of the divine nature.

While we need to consider Peter’s words, “You have the words of eternal life,” in the context of John 6, we also do well to think of all of Jesus’s teaching as given to us in the gospel accounts (again, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). If we heed those words, take them to heart so as to put them into practice in our lives, then we’re ushered into God’s promise of eternal life which begins in a personal and communal sense now, but is destined for the world, for all of creation in the new creation to come. This may sound surreal and heavenly in the sense that it’s all but lost on us as to what it means. But when one goes over the gospels, we begin to find that it is quite down to earth, for the world, and for life in this world. Yes, it speaks to a new world to come which through Christ is breaking into this old world of which we’re a part. The beginnings of that are with us now, yes in and through Jesus himself and through Jesus’s teaching, his words to us.

does God really make a difference?

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7

Oftentimes the religious or what many of us would call faith experience is chalked up to mere psychology. It’s thought that in the evolutionary process somehow humankind came up with the idea of a superior being or beings and the Supreme Being which helped them cope in what ends up being nothing more than a material world. That their idea of spiritual was fanciful but helpful in some ways, but ending up being quite harmful in many other way, indicative in all the violence and destruction perpetuated in the name of religion, yes, even in the name of Christ.

I have no doubt that somehow in the evolutionary process something like this may indeed have happened. This seems pretty evident, or at least a strong possibility from what we can piece together from archaeology and probably other disciplines as well. But what if something beyond psychology is involved in this?

When I do what is told to do from the above passage in Philippians, is the peace that comes merely some psychological reaction from the myth of a God who makes a difference? Maybe, but based on fairly long experience now, I doubt it. And this doubt is not based only on experience but also on the tradition of Scripture given to us, and the witness of many. Admittedly it is based on faith and mysticism, but I find it as real as anything else in life, and somehow both transcendent while fully immanent in the sense of being present in down to earth, helpful ways, or at least that ought to be a part of the thought.

Why is it considered amazing that there’s more to everything than just nature? Even if science could get to what preceded the Big Bang, and I don’t doubt that it might, that in no way addresses the question of God. That is forever outside of science’s realm, even as any scientist would have to admit. Although what continues to unfold makes what science is observing more and more astounding, and less and less explainable, which might be taken as a clue.

All that said, in reality faith won’t be helped by that, but only by Christ, looking to Christ. I do agree with C.S. Lewis that when people in sincerity live in the light they have, that God honors that. But even though they may not know it, it is always and forever through Christ, who is the way to the Father. That is why if I were serving in hospice or in a chaplaincy and helping people near death, I would not try to get them converted to my faith. I certainly would pray for them, and be ready to pray with them. I would want to be fully present with them, and in so doing trust that Christ’s presence is with us.

But back to the question of this post. What difference does God really make? I believe without a shadow of a doubt, all the difference in the world. Yes, all the difference. We’re talking about night and day, light and darkness, from the edge leaning toward the abyss to the full light of day. Something like all of that. And what difference does God make? What we read in Scripture from cover to cover, and especially about Christ points us to what difference is intended. The God who made this astounding, wonderful, precarious world can and promises to remake, make all things new. That is the hope as in promise that we can begin to experience fully even as our experience is what it is, yes- in this life.

God does make the difference needed, but something we have to try to apply to all the broken places in this world. Opposed to all even in any religion that is opposed to the way of Christ. With the conviction that whatever good God does even through us now is somehow more than just a sign for the good world to come in Christ.

God behind and before us

For you shall not go out in haste,
and you shall not go in flight,
for the LORD will go before you,
and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

Isaiah 52:12

Right before the “suffering servant” passages we have this promise for Israel in the midst of subjugation by the foreign world power of that time, Assyria. All the promises of God we’re told are yes and amen in and through Christ. So, there’s something we can take from this for ourselves this day and time.

God is behind and before us to guide and protect us. We need to live appreciating that. It might well be true for us and is as long as we have faith. But we may not much if at all have any sense or experience of it. This truth should help us not to be afraid or panic as the passage above tells us. Because we have a certain inward rest even in the midst of difficulty, trial, whatnot, just all the inevitable twists and turns that life brings.

God will take care of it. God has our backs and knows all that lies ahead. There’s a certain mysticism which faith in God elicits. We can’t explain or understand it fully, except we know there’s one that fully understands, and though much seems out of control, and is definitely beyond our control, we also know that God is at work in all things for good, somehow in control in the midst of it all. So that our full confidence is only in God. In and through Jesus.

learning to depend on God when anxious

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7

I certainly have had other problems, but I think my longest, persistent problem has been anxiety. Sometimes in the past, smothered in it for days at a time. Better in recent years, but still not that good.

More recently, I’ve begun to experience what I think is something of a breakthrough for me. The passage above has been my main go to thoughts in trying to deal with this, and still is. The difference I think somehow might lie in the depth in which I’m pursuing this. But it’s probably more simple than that.

I tend to be a person of words, connecting with words, thinking through things with words, processing life largely that way, not enough with God’s beauty and in other ways. And I likely did that with this passage, thinking as long as I do such and such, then God will respond, but maybe more like on a conceptual level, than personally.

Maybe not that much difference, but now I realize it all depends on God, quite personal. It is kind of a mystical approach, but quite real for us Christians. I realize that when I’m concerned about something, whether as a possibility or a reality I’m having to deal with, that I can’t get rid of the anxious feelings which arise and often the numbness that follows. I can only bring my concerns to God, just as the passage tells us above. And wait for him.

Invariably, God comes through. That takes away panic, gives me perspective, and brings needed peace of heart and mind. Only from God in answer to prayer right in the midst of the struggle. In and through Jesus.

the limitations of writing/second thoughts

Every once in a while, I start thinking a bit, and somewhat through about the limitations of writing, and specifically of what I do as a rule in writing a post everyday (except for Sunday) on this blog. My thinking when I get to this place has evolved, so that I’m ready now to accept the thought that my writing can have value in its place, and may help someone along the way, and as I have thought, and a friend recently said, it’s a part of my ongoing journey in sorting out things, trying to think through life, and specifically life in God through Christ.

We all have our elements and niches, some we’ve developed a skill in because we’ve had to in order to earn a living, true in my case. And others with which we have a natural attraction to, and affinity. I have always loved books, but have not been as good a reader as I would have liked. Just the same, they’re usually a companion, even if the learnedness some people think I have is actually second hand from people who really have read the sources, such as Karl Barth and the classics.

But while we each have the special thing we like to do, we could say, our element, humble as it may be, whether painting, music, science, whatever, none of that gets at the core of our being. We are all more than that. I remember the story of Thomas Aquinas, truly one of the greatest Christian minds, one of the greatest minds ever. Toward the end of his life, he has some kind of vision, maybe toward the Beatific vision of barely scratching the surface in apprehending as in knowing God. And he felt like all his writings, great as they actually were and are, were essentially worthless. He had in a sense seen the Truth, and the words he had written paled in comparison.

I find it interesting, for myself, that I can write a post, more or less be in it, and then forget it completely afterward. Often they’re written as an afterthought on reflections from my own life, as well as life in general, hopefully informed and formed by scripture, the gospel being the center in and through Christ, leading us to the life of the Trinity in and through him: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

I think whatever time I have left, I may want to major more on meditation and prayer. Maybe I’m a bit of a mystic at heart, certainly monastic and liturgical in my orientation, but in a loose way, given the life that I lead. But prayer, and working at that, and seeking to grow and become more familiar and at home in the rhythms that come from that, with for me scripture and the gospel being center in that, seems like it is at least the stopping place for me now, and perhaps the resting place from now on. Although such can easily be lost or weakened in the mayhem of life.

I am not crazy about all these “I’s,” “me’s” and “mines” so to speak, but we have to think of faith in relation to our lives as individuals, and together with others in the essential community of this life, and ultimately in the community of God. We each have our story to tell, our witness of God’s faithfulness in and through Jesus, and we’re on a different part of what for each of us is a unique journey, along with others on their unique journeys, while at the same time having to deal with the same things and with the same destination.

I hope I can keep writing, as long as life and mind allows, because that’s something I enjoy doing, hopefully with some benefit for a few along with myself as I share thoughts in common with us all. But I am aware of a new chapter which it seems I’m entering. We’ll see each other along the way and especially at the end, as we go on through this life, and especially in and through Jesus. As we seek to find our way more and more in and through him.

mysticism

By faith we know, as the book of Hebrews tells us. Yet at the same time we have good evidence enough to make a sound rationale for why we hold to the Christian faith, specifically in terms of the resurrection account of Jesus, and the aftermath of that.

But there is a certain element of mysticism inherent to our faith, which smacks against the naturalism which many in the academics hold to (though certainly not all). By mysticism I mean something which can’t be explained according to the natural, everyday occurrence of things we observe and experience. And by this I don’t at all mean a kind of god of the gaps, by which we explain all we can’t explain by ascribing it to God and God’s miraculous working.

This sort of Christian mysticism is inherent in God himself (or, God’s Self) as Trinity, as well as entering into creation through the Incarnation when the Word became flesh in Jesus. And the faith is now received and lived out through the Spirit. This mysticism is also relevant in terms of heaven and earth becoming one in and through Jesus, beginning now, but someday to be realized fully and completely when Jesus reappears, the new creation being completed in him.

I like sound, coherent explanations, and therefore I like scientific endeavor, even though I don’t naturally think well with reference to it, but rather am an admirer of it. But even within that realm, while in theory everything may be explainable, we know in practice that what is found as humans are able to more and more probe the depths of things, is just how mind boggling reality is.

But when you bring a Creator into the picture, one immediately has to accept the idea of faith. Faith in something which cannot be observed or experienced in the normal way humans go about life. Though that last thought does open up big questions when we think of love. Yes, we could make that into nothing more than natural responses and grind that down even further into elements and what is behind that, naturally speaking. But is that even rational in itself, really? Of course it would be in terms of naturalism, but what about in terms of life itself as we live it?

Mysticism to some extent saves the day for me. I mean it ends up that God in Jesus by the Spirit makes all the difference in my life. And that difference is in regard to big and small matters. In every matter. But it’s a mysticism as alluded to above (ref: Jesus’ resurrection) which has its foot in the real world. Which lives in the same mess and blessing in which the rest of humankind lives (give or take starkly different circumstances globally).

It ends up being “me and God” to some extent (of course understood in terms of God being the center). And me and others in God through Jesus. Together in Jesus living out this mystic faith and life in and for the world.