Trust in the LORD and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
To trust is to truly agree that someone is who they say they are. I’m not just talking about identity, but character. That’s why it is so hard to find trust in our world. We spend so much time trying to manage our image that very few of us really show the world who we truly are. Maybe that’s why trust is such a hard thing for us when it comes to God. Trust in the Lord and do good. Doing good doesn’t seem like the right thing to do. Sure we want to do good and we want to be good, but when push comes to shove, we want to do what is right for us.
That’s when it all starts going wrong. Trusting God allows us to believe that His path is the path to peace. It allows us to believe that even though our way seems to make sense, He has a better idea. It is the path that allows us to “dwell in the land” of safe pasture rather than meander through a world of uncertainty.
2011 Update: It is difficult to read this post on March 11, just hearing the news from Japan and knowing that many people in Hawaii are anticipating destruction. In the wake of Earthquakes, Tsunamis, and flooding, these words about safe pasture seem empty. Of course some will say these destructive acts of nature are "God's will" or some divine punishment. I can't help but think that God's intention is to walk beside his people in times of joy and in times of sorrow.
This is the lesson of Christ that we celebrate this Lenten season-- God was among us, suffering with the least of us, not escaping the hardships of this world but enduring them and overcoming them in the end. Events such as today shake our faith, but rather than causing us to believe that a Tsunami is evidence of the absence of God, I believe that it is an opportunity to discover the presence of God looms even larger in the midst of crisis.
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