Where the Footprints Are Fresh (blog)

Trust God.  It sounds so simple.But what does it mean?  What does trusting God look like?  Why is it so hard, sometimes?Salvation required nothing of me.  Jesus did everything needed for me to be saved, on the Cross long ago.Faith is also a gift from God, and His work in me.  I hear His Word and, by the power of His Spirit, I believe.  This faith that God gives me will not fail me in the end.Trust, though...Trust is my response to the situation at hand, whatever that may be.  Should I 'wait and see' or 'act now'?  Can I stay patient and calm, or will I give in to anxiety and worry?  (The Lord and I often have different ideas about what my response should be.  He's always right, of course).Trust is a work in progress.  It's a learning process.Trust is like a journey.  It's all of the steps that faith takes, some bold and others hesitant.  Trust is what happens right in front of me.Though full of fear, confused and discouraged by all that it sees, trust takes that one brave step forward with Jesus...and then takes 3 more back in retreat.  But that's ok, because that's what trust in God looks like.  Trust is where the footprints are fresh, mine and His, going forward and backward and forward again, the blades of grass still popping back up after being pressed down under our feet.Trust must take firm hold of Jesus in all of this, and that's where it gets hard because it means letting go of everything else that would steady it.Trust isn't something that I do naturally or easily.  'Show me that you are trustworthy, and then I'll let go and trust you', I say.  But the only way to really know if someone can be trusted is to let go and trust them.It's not a simple thing, trust.  I trust God with my own life as I go out into the world, but I'm only just beginning to know what it means to entrust my daughters to Him (now that they are out of my reach at college, and I have to simply trust Him with them).Can I gauge my trust in God by taking a closer look at the things that are still in my reach, at everything that I'm still holding onto, too tightly?  If I look, will I see where He is at work in me, where His footprints are fresh all around me?It's scary, letting go and stepping out, trusting God, because I can't see Him, so it seems like there is nothing but air all around me.  Nothing to keep me from falling.When I do fall, when things don't go the way I had hoped or the way I had planned, my trust in God wavers and I doubt.If faith is from God, and it will never let us down, then isn't doubt a failure of (not faith but) trust?  How do they fit together, faith and trust?  (I'm not sure, but that's exactly when trust is needed, when I don't understand!)Doubt paralyzes me.  When I doubt, I linger.  My feet grow cold and would cement themselves into the ground.I guess that's why, ultimately, trust must be a work that God does in me.Trust cannot give, it can only open itself up to receive.  Trust can only see the light penetrating the darkness.  Trust can only feel the strong arms that hold, and sometimes must carry it.  Trust can only take the outstretched hand that lifts it back up on its feet.Trust sees the fresh footprints in front of it and, in faith, resumes following.Trust stands firm in God's unconditional, eternal love for us, even when you trust me and I let you down, or when I trust you and you let me down.  Forgiveness is where trust can be reborn, again and again, even more fresh than the wounds that pierced but which now will heal, covered by that amazing and enduring love of God.Trust rises up out of the ashes of mistrust!Trust is knowing, and confessing, that you and I are not always trustworthy.  It's about looking inside of ourselves and being honest about what we see.  It's about laying it all out on God's Table, and realizing that we have nothing to bring to Him except our brokenness.  Trust means being invited there, again and again, to know and experience that God is, and always will be, worthy of trust.  Trust is believing that He waits eagerly for us there at His altar, with the desire and the power to meet our need.Because He already has met it, in Jesus.And that's what makes trusting so simple, in the end!  All of these thoughts only bring us back to where we started.  All that we need to do, really, is just...Trust God.Just trust Him.