Trusting in God

 This week's quotation comes from the Book of Psalms in The Hebrew Bible. It reads, "Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act." 

I envy the writer of those words his simple trust. (I don't think I'm making an unwarranted assumption that it was a man). Because simple trust in God is not easy, in these complicated days. At a time when our news headlines are full of stories of war, violence, sadness and grief, it is difficult to trust that God knows what He/She/It is doing.

I recently listened to the audio book of The Shack by William P. Young. And its central character, Mack, who is grieving the adbduction and murder of his youngest daughter, brings up this very issue. And Papa (God the Father) tells him, "There are millions of reasons to allow pain and hurt and suffering rather than to eradicate them, but most of those reasons can only be understood within each person's story. I am not evil. You are the ones who embrace fear and pain and power and rights so readily in your relationships. But your choices are also not stronger than my purposes, and I will use every choice you make for the ultimate good and the most loving outcome."

When Mack protests that she shouldn't allow bad things to happen, she replies, "You see pain and death as ultimate evils and God as the ultimate betrayer, or perhaps, at best, as fundamentally untrustworthy. You dictate the terms and judge my actions and find me guilty.... You don't think that I am good. If you knew I was good and that everything - the means, the ends, and all the processes of individual lives - is all covered by my goodness, then while you might not always understand what I am doing, you would trust me. But you don't."

Mack makes one final comment, "I just can't imagine any final outcome that would justify all this." And Papa replied, "We're not justifying it. We are redeeming it." Later on in the book, Sophia (who is the personifcation of Papa's wisdom) tells him, ""Papa has never needed evil to accomplish his good purposes. It is you humans who have embraced evil and Papa has responded with goodness. ... Give up being his judge and know Papa for who he is. Then you will be able to embrace his love in the midst of your pain, instead of pushing him away with your self-centered perception of how you think the universe should be."

Later on, Papa explains, "Just because I work incredible good out of unspeakable tragedies doesn't mean I orchestrate the tragedies." 

Which has given me a whole other understanding of God. I have realised that the only way forward is to let go of judgement and trust. I like how Mack learns to trust but, like him, I find it so very hard. That last quotation really hit home. It helped me to understand that although God, because he has given us freedom, will not intervene in the affairs of this world, he will "work incredible good" out of it. Hard to hold on to, hard to believe, but what if it is true? Can I let go enough of judgement to trust in God's goodness? I'll get back to you on this.