Trust Falling

Recently I was asked what my “go to” scripture is when I’m facing hard times. The first thing that came to mind was Proverbs 3:5,6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.”

When we face hard times, I think we often want help or comfort. This passage from Proverbs doesn’t talk about comfort or assistance, but rather direction. I contemplated why I answered with this scripture when thinking about my #1 passage that helps my soul cope in times of difficulty.

In facing a trial, whether it’s a flat tire, an undetermined diagnosis for my troublesome health symptoms, a fragile relationship issue, an uncertain future, financial stress…or any variety of difficulty…being able to trust God in the midst of it comes down to surrendering my natural tendency to either rely solely on my own resourcefulness and reasoning or relying on another human being. Sometimes I have created a pattern of coping or problem-solving that is self-protective, controlling, and manipulative, rather than humbling myself to God’s faithfulness, purposes, power, and timing.

When I was 18 and about to attend college as a Freshman, I signed up to go on a survival course prior to the Fall Semester. Along with a group of about 40 other new students, I arrived early for college and left everything behind at the dorm except for some bare necessities in a backpack. We were then escorted into a room in the gym to get acquainted with one another. We had no idea how vitally we would be depending on one another in the coming days. Initiative games were employed to immediately begin developing trust, teamwork, and leadership within the group. Our first task was to get lined up in alphabetical order, blindfolded, without being able to speak. We had not yet introduced ourselves to one another.

Our second task was to each do a trust fall. The group organized itself into two lines, facing each other with outstretched arms, palms facing up. One person at a time stood on a platform with their back to the group. When they were ready, they purposely fell backwards about 6 or 7 feet off the ground, like a stiff board, into the extended arms of the group, trusting that these people they didn’t know were going to catch them with their outstretched arms. When I took my turn, I had to overcome my fear and trust that these strangers were not going to be too weak, tired, bored, or distracted to catch my body as it made the trip backwards into their extended forearms.

After the trust fall activity, we were divided into groups, loaded up into vans, and went off into Canada, the Appalachian trail, and a ropes course. We stretched ourselves through a variety of outdoor activities that forced us to lean on one another for quite a bit, but we also went deeper and connected our trust and dependence to God. Building a trust relationship with these other students became a bridge for ultimately trusting the Lord in the manner we trusted one another during the course. Honestly, after the trip I did not end up doing life with any of the people in my group, but the lessons about trust remained in my heart from that experience, and my relationship with God has grown steadily over the last 42 years. I learned a lot about trust and what it feels like, how it is earned, and how it factors in and endures or solves problems.

Trusting in God’s goodness, wisdom, love, creative plan, and His faithfulness comes from a long and shared association with Him. Through the daily trials I have learned to walk with Him, turning to God when hardship crops up. When the bigger challenges of life present themselves, I’m already wired to turn to the Lord. To borrow a phrase from an old hymn…when “sea billows roll,” I know He’s going to show up and meet me in the waves that are over my head. I may have to be in the water for a while, but He’s going to swim with me and guide me to safety, whatever that looks like in my particular trial. I cannot claim that I do it perfectly, or even well, all the time. There are moments of failure where I revert to trusting in myself or others rather than God. But my desire and aim are to more quickly and readily lean on the Lord, trusting Him as the source of my strength and guidance.

My own understanding is not to be leaned on too heavily, but instead I am to trust God with all my heart, acknowledging His eternal qualities that meet me in my point of need, and welcoming those attributes to cover the unknowns, placing Him in the leadership role for my life. When I do this, He will be faithful to direct my path, guiding me in whatever needs to be done, providing His wisdom, which becomes the companion I need to walk through the trial with. He won’t leave me, and He’ll be exactly what I need in the moments where my heart needs someone reliable to fully trust. Even if I feel like I’m falling backwards from an uncomfortable height, I can know that He will catch me.

Kim Ford is a long-time resident of Wasilla. Her collection of articles can be found on her blog at: www.thesteadfastbutterfly.blog and she welcomes new subscribers to her site (no charges or fees).