Trust

Do not be anxious about your life, as to what you will eat, or what you shall drink, nor for your body, as to what you shall put on (Matt.6:25).

Jesus gives us a reason not to be "anxious:"  for your Father in heaven knows you have need of these things, but seek first the kingdom of heaven, and all these things will be added to you.

He also tells us to observe the birds of the air, "who neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns," yet who are fed by His Father.  If we do "observe" the birds, we see that they are not standing around waiting to be fed.  They do indeed work for their food; indeed, they are busy all day with the tasks of feeding themselves and their brood, constructing nests in which to lay their young, and filling the world with song.  The difference is that no bird is worrying or anxious about tomorrow, "for tomorrow will take care of itself," in the words of Jesus.

Jesus never told us not to work, but only not to worry or "be anxious."  Actually, it is much more difficult in my opinion not to worry than it is to work.  Worry, or anxiety, seems to come much easier to us than trust.  It is hard to trust in God; He seems far away from us.  We are not sure He actually knows what is happening in our individual lives -- or that He cares.  We tend to think that He would dismiss our small concerns as unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

Jesus taught us to ask and to keep on asking.  I think it is a lack of faith when we are afraid to ask.  I remember many years ago, before I really knew the Father, that someone asked me if I had prayed about a health problem.  "I am afraid to ask," I said, "because if God does not help me, I would lose the little faith I now have."  Looking back now, I realize that what I thought was faith was nothing but a lack of trust.

If we refuse to ask, we will always believe that whatever happens is what we ourselves made happen--or had no power to make happen.  Fortunately, God began to teach me in many ways to ask and to trust.  I am still on the journey; my trust is not yet perfect, but I am learning "in all things to give thanks, for this is the will of God on your behalf," and "to cast [my] cares upon the Lord, for He cares for [me]" (Phil. 4:6) and (I Peter 5:5-7).  We cannot afford to wait for the big things in life-- the major illness, the threat of bankruptcy, the loss of a job -- before we begin to ask, although that is usually what we do.  We tend to think we ourselves can handle our daily lives, so we don't "call on the Lord" until we really need Him -- sort of like going to the emergency room.  The problem is that when we do call on Him in a time of great need, we have not learned to trust along the way, so we remain anxious even while we are asking.

I recall once hearing a man tell a story about how he began to learn that God is here -- now-- and listening to our every prayer.  He had heard people say that we should ask for what we need, no matter how "small" we think the request might be.  He had parked downtown and found that he was short 25 cents for the meter (in the days before credit card meters).  He was on time for his appointment, but could not afford to leave his parking space and search for a free place to park.  What to do?  Most of us would not "bother" God with such a frivolous request; we would think that God would not care whether we parked or not -- and especially not when a quarter was the issue.   Maybe if we desperately needed five thousand dollars -- but a quarter?  Get real!

See -- that's exactly what the Lord said in Isaiah -- your ways are not my ways, nor are your thoughts my thoughts.  Imagine if we actually out loud said to Jesus what we are thinking:  God does not care that I need a quarter; He only begins to care if we need five thousand dollars.  I think Jesus might smile -- that is, if He did not throw back His head and laugh out loud at us!

Anyway, in his moment of desperation, the man telling the story, humbled himself -- and it was humiliating because of the small amount -- to ask his Father in heaven for the quarter he needed.  Just at that moment, as he was standing there trying to decide his next step, a friend of his drove up and stopped at the traffic light.  The two greeted one another, and the man asked his friend if he had a quarter to lend him.  Of course.....what did you expect?

Now here's the thing:  the man telling the story did not hesitate to ask his friend for a quarter, because it was nothing to the friend to hand over a quarter.  In fact, the friend was greatly happy to do so; he was so glad to have been on the spot and to be able to supply a great need of the moment, even though it was a small thing to him.  Can we see that our needs of the moment are also great to us, and that God's care for us extends to our "daily bread" as well as to what we think of as "important" enough for us to ask Him for? 

If we don't begin to ask our Father in heaven for the small things of life, there's no way we will ever be able to believe that He cares enough to give us the larger things we need.  And if we do begin to ask for the small things that are still important to us at the moment---like the quarter--we will begin to dance for joy at the attentiveness of the God who loves us enough to supply our needs from moment to moment.

You might think I am either crazy or impious or inpertinent, but I will confess that I even ask God for mulch for my garden when I begin to run low.  There was a time when I would not have dared to ask for such a "silly" thing, but now.....Well, when your neighbor comes over to apologize that he has not yet gotten around to raking his leaves and delivering them to your driveway, you just have to laugh.