I Will Trust In Him...No, Wait...Ok, I Will...No...

This week my wife Lori took our two boys to the mall to get their hair cut. While she was there she noticed there was some police activity going on around the mall so she called me to check and see if the news was reporting on what was going on. The news was indeed reporting on the matter. The first report said a gunman had shot a lady in the parking lot and the suspect was still at large. Naturally, I immediately got on the phone to call my wife to tell her what was going on and to not get out of the car and to come home. Unfortunately, there was no answer. I called again and still no answer. I proceeded to call what seemed like a dozen times in the span of probably 5 minutes only to get her voice-mail each time.

Have you ever been in that kind of spot? That state of unknowing. The mind can play some crazy tricks on you can't it? I remember sitting there thinking ok, she has her phone in her purse and doesn't hear it. Immediately fear spoke louder and said "there's a crazy lunatic on the loose and my wife and kids are walking through the parking lot and...." You get the picture. It was like a see-saw battle back and forth. Trusting that they were safe and then fearing they were not. That went on a half a dozen times a minute until finally I heard from her. She, oblivious to the fact that a lady had been shot literally a few hundred feet from where she parked, was in the mall safe and sound.

That's the way it normally plays out doesn't it. While we sit there wringing our hands, in the end there was really no need to sit there wringing our hands. We all know that worrying never changes the outcome yet, we all do it sometimes. To be honest, it all comes down to a trust issue. When we give into fear and worry, it is the result of our lack of trust in God's ability to provide a favorable outcome. You know it as well as I do that when everything is going smooth, it's a piece of cake to trust God. Throw a little uncertainty into the mix and suddenly that trust can begin to become a little shaky. The truth is that we become really good at trusting ourselves and our ability to fix things that need to be fixed or control things we can control. It's those moments when things are out of our hands. Its moments when we can't fix something or can't control it that we start to sweat a little bit. Do you catch what I'm saying? We actually trust ourselves sometimes more than we trust God.

Scripture tells us things like, "trust in the Lord with all of your heart..." Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him..." "He is a shield to all who trust Him..." and "But He who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him..." Yet, we often struggle to really trust Him. We trust in ourselves, our abilities, our money, our jobs, our government, and lots of other things. All of which are limited, imperfect, unstable, and ever changing. God on the other hand, is unlimited, completely perfect, perfectly stable, and never changing. He can be trusted. He can be trusted with your past, your present, and your future. He can be trusted when you travel, when you're at home, when you're sleeping, and when you're awake. He can be trusted when the doctor runs out of options, when your spouse runs out the door, and when your child makes the wrong turn in life. He can be trusted when the economy tanks, your bank account hits zero, and the company you've given your life to lays you off. And yes, He can be trusted when your wife and kids go to the mall at the same time a lunatic is running around shooting people with a gun.