thoughts on "Trusting God".

"I'm just trusting God."

I say that a lot. My friends do too.

In talking about finances, new relationships, our crazy schedules, our splintered friendships, the grumpy guy we work with, the huge dream we are pursuing, the college we hope our kid gets into, the sports team we hope we make, the job we hate, the sickness that won't seem to leave, the extra weight we can't seem to lose.....

How's it going with all of that?
Oh... we're just trusting God.

But what do we mean? We mean that we are trusting God with the outcome. Like we trust that He will work it out. We trust that it will all be okay. We trust that the money will come, or the new relationship will be awesome, or that we won't crumble under the weight of our chaotic schedules. We mean that we trust our splintered friendships will get resolved, or that our bad friends will just get cut out of our lives, along with the dude we work with, we trust that our dreams will come true and that our kid is going to make right choices and that the coach will be blown away by our skills. We trust that the cough will dissolve and so will the extra weight we gained. We just trust that God is somehow going to work everything out for our good.

I like that. I hope its true.

But I've been noticing something lately. I notice it in me. I notice it in you.

I notice that we are quick to declare that we trust God with the outcome of our situation, but we are slow to actually trust Him with the process.

What do I mean? Well, I mean that God has taught us a lot of things about life, and love, and money and relationships, and though He does promise that all things will work together for the good of those who love Him, He promises that alongside teaching us to obey Him. Trusting Him with our process means learning how He has designed for things to be done, and obeying His ways rather than conjuring up our own.

Imagine if we "trusted" our fitness trainers the way we trust God. Our fitness trainers assure us that we will get bangin bodies and toned physiques if we eat according to their recommended meal plans, and exercise as they direct us to each day. They guarantee we will be fit if we just adhere to the things they tell us to do.

Makes sense.

Now imagine if we "trusted" them. We declare to everyone that we are following their guidance. We post photos quoting our trainer's advice, and regularly talk about how excited we are to finally achieve the bodies we have been dreaming of.

But then we eat whatever we want and don't do a single exercise that our trainer has told us to do.

How crazy would that be?

It wouldn't be long before people called us out on our absurdity and challenged us to either follow the fitness trainer's lead, or stop pretending that somehow we are "trusting" our trainer... when its clear we aren't doing anything that we have been advised.

We would be fools to think we could get the body our trainer is promising us when we our process looks nothing like the one the trainer gave us to begin with.

But somehow we miss that principle with God. He promises abundant blessings on His children, but He also gives us life directions in order to attain these promises. In reading the Bible lately I am realizing that its not hard to see some of the things God calls us to do, and the things He has instructed us to avoid, in order to walk into His promises. In a lot of ways its quite simple.

But we throw away His process, and build our lives in accordance to Cosmo magazine, looking to people like the Kardashians for advice on major life issues, and then we wonder "why God keeps holding out on us".

Its funny how we can genuinely act surprised when the promises of God go unfulfilled in our lives... It would be like blaming our trainer for our own lack of discipline and obedience.

I'm learning that if I want to trust God with the outcome, I need to trust Him with the process too. I need to look to Him to show me how to handle my marriage, how to deal with finances, how to treat people I work with, how to view my body... and how to manage anything else I might need Him to come through on.

That's all. Just some thoughts for my Sunday afternoon.
&& Here are a handful of photos from the last two weeks. Nothing too special but Shaunny is in Chile now so these photos are extra nice for me to look at.
I miss that guy.