Letting Go. Letting God.

The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you. - Psalms 9:9-10 (NRSV)

True confession time again. I find it very hard to “put my trust in God.” I am enough of a skeptic, a pessimist, a doubter, and a whole lot of others things that make it hard to fully trust God. When I most need to let go and let God I am hesitant to do so. One of my favorite scenes in a movie is when Indiana Jones is standing at the opening in the cliff and faces a chasm. He rolls his eyes and says “A leap of faith!” Then he takes a breath and closes his eyes and raises his leg straight out and drops it down and almost stumps when it hits the unseen stone bridge that crosses the chasm. (This is from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.)

Being the paradox that I am. I seem to always come up against something where trusting God is required and I will pause. I will look out over the chasm. I will search for some other route. I will explore other possibilities. And then I will close my eyes and take the step. Because ultimately, I do trust God. Now we have go down a road that will seem of subject but to get where I need to be I need to write a few things first.

In philosophy and theology the question of God’s involvement in the world is standard. There are about as many ideas, theories and theologies as there are people who expound them. But when you boil it all down you get to just a few main ones. There is the “God as Divine Puppet Master” that sees God as manipulating creation in order to lead it and us to a particular place. There is the “God as Divine Machine Marker” that sees creation as a wonderful mechanism jumped started by God but then left to evolve as it will without any attention or intervention by God. There is the “Divine Carrot and Stick” God who tests and offers rewards and punishes failures. This is kind of the Puppet Master but more a “Grand Manipulator”. There is the belief that God infuses all creation and this “Divine Cosmic Ingredient” somehow flavors things and make them better, holy, right if we have the eyes to see and hears to hear. Some put forth the idea that everything is just an illusion and that God is the “Divine Magician” that pulls the wool over our eyes and waits for us to discover that it is all illusion. And of course, there is the God that is the “Divine Spoiled Brat” needing us to somehow appease and placate and cater to his/her’s whims and desires in order to receive his/her blessings. And finally, there is the “Capricious God” that we cannot comprehend and all we can do is try to live our lives as best we can while navigating the turmoil of God’s vacillating ways.

I think you can see how all this plays into the conversation of trusting God. Depending on how you understand God the trust you have in God means different things. There is one other way to understand God. It is God as “Divine Companion.” Here God walks with you in life. Not throwing roadblocks or waiting for you to find the correct path. No, God journeys with you; offering support, comfort, nurture, guidance, and a vision of what you and life can be. God as a partner in life’s journey there to go the distance with you but not able to save you from the choices you make or the fickle way life can work. But always there to lend a hand, inspire, challenge, and give you strength to travel on. It is this God that I trust when faced with life’s many and variety options and alternatives. It is this God that I finally and ultimately trust to be the stone bridge that my foot slams into when I take that leap of faith. So, whenever I have a decision to make that has more than a passing impact on my life I do my due diligence and then close my eyes and raise my leg and step out, trusting that God is there.

Dear God, help me to trust in you. Whenever life gets to be too much help me to turn to you. Whenever I find myself unsure help me to know you are there with me as I journey. Thank you for always being ready to support me, guide me, comfort me, and pick me up when I fall. Thank you for our partnership and help me to be faithful in fulfilling my part. Amen.