There’s this line in my newly released novella, An October Bride, where Emma Tate and her father are having a fire-side chat about the concept of trust…
***
This is another thing cancer has done. It’s taught my father the art of living in each moment. He doesn’t look ahead. He doesn’t let himself spiral into a storm of what-ifs. He relies on God’s strength for today and trusts him with tomorrow. For me, it’s a constant struggle. I let out a puff of breath. “You make it sound so simple.”
“Trust is simple.” He holds up his pointer finger. “Not easy, but simple.”
***
There is nothing complicated about putting your trust in someone.
It’s like that trust exercise, when a person stands behind you, and without looking back, you fall. You trust that the person will catch you.
Falling is simple.
It doesn’t take a lot of thought. It doesn’t take a lot of planning or figuring or solving. It’s just something you choose.
That’s trust. It’s not complicated.
But like Emma’s father says, it’s not easy, either.
I don’t know about you, but this is a lesson God has been teaching me these past twelve months.
Again and again and again, He’s asking me to trust Him. Even when it’s difficult. Even when I’m scared. Even when I don’t feel His presence behind me.
As you read these words, I’m probably high up in the air, somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean. Or maybe I’m headed from Brussels, closer to the equator by now.
Why am I high up in the air above the Atlantic or the equator, you ask?
Because I’m on my way to visit my daughter, who doesn’t live at home with Ryan and Brogan and me, but lives instead in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
She became a Ganshert on July 17, 2013. But because of reasons too convoluted to go into here on this blog, she remains in the DRC. We pray every day that God would allow her to join our family.
And every day that she remains there and we remain here is another day God asks me to trust Him.
Some days are easier than others.
We started this adoption process three years ago. Nothing about it has been easy. And yet, if there is one thing that God has shown Ryan and I as we walk this journey, it is His goodness.
Which might sound funny to outsiders looking in.
I mean, our little girl is 6000 miles away in a country where 1 in 5 children do not make it to their fifth birthday.
But there it is.
The mercy and grace He has extended to us, and our daughter too, has been undeniable.
So on the days when trust feels like a particular shade of impossible, I hold tight to that goodness. I hold tight to that mercy and that grace. And I remember that thus far, God has never dropped me.
In the words of that very very VERY popular song by Hillsong…
“You’ve never failed, and you won’t stop now.”
What is God asking you to trust Him with today?
You can purchase An October Bride (an 88 page novella) on e-book or audio wherever e-books and audio-books are sold. Please check out the An October Bride book page for more information and buy links.
