Trust in God

          I guess I'm down to one day a week of blogging.  Today, I'd like to share the best description of the difference between having faith in God and trusting in God.  I am not sure in what magazine I read the article or the author of it, but I do remember the story.

          A woman went to her priest one day and told him that she has become very ill.  She explained that she thought she had a lot of faith, but now it seems gone.  The priest responded that she has not lost her faith, but what is lacking is her trust in God.  He told her this story:

Every year, a world-famous tight-rope walker crossed over the Niagara Falls.  Spectators came from all around the world and cheered him on.  Prior to stepping out to cross the thundering falls, the tight-rope walker looked to the crowd for reassurance, and they all cried out, "You can do it."  Many of them had seen him do it before, and believed that he could do it again, and yelled, "Go, go, go!"

Then the tight-rope walker announced that this year he was going to cross the Falls pushing a cart.  Everyone cheered with excitement.  He asked the crowd, "Do you think I can do it?"  The lady standing the closest to him replied, "Of course you can.  You are the greatest tight-rope walker in the world."  At that, the tight-rope walker told the lady, "Get in the cart!" 

The priest used this story to teach that there is a difference in having faith in someone and trusting them with your life.  In order to trust God, we must know His great love for us.  There is nothing He would not do for love of us, even death on a cross.  We can certainly trust Him with our life. 

           This was a great lesson for me to learn because I try to apply everything I learn to how it can enrich my family life.  In this story, I saw where I not only did not trust God enough, I did not trust my husband enough.  If it were my husband saying to me, "Get in the cart," I would not have done it.  Talk about a confidence-builder!   It's when I choose to go along for the ride, no matter what may come, that I perform a daring feat of love. 

            It is then that my spouse knows how much I love him and trust him to care for me and our family.  That is so much more important than the outcome of a situation.  So many times I would not even ask his opinion about something and turned to a perfect stranger for advice.  I did the same thing to God, the expert on love.  Instead of going to God's Word and trusting in it enough to live it, I looked to the world for answers. 

            Confidence in being loved, and trust go hand in hand.  I am confident that God loves me more than I could ever imagine.  I trust that He will never do anything to harm us.  The greatest harm we can bring to ourselves is to fall from God's grace.  That happens when we do not trust in love.  I was not always confident of my husband's love for me and vice versa, because a lot of times it didn't seem there.  But God is always there and so we must trust that love is there, even when it seems like it isn't.  Once we are confident that our spouse loves us more than we know and trust that he/she will never desire us to fall from God's grace, we can trustingly say "Yes" to getting in the cart.   It begins with trusting in God!

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, on your own intelligence rely not; In all your ways be mindful of him, and he will make straight your paths."  (Proverbs 3:5-6)