Texts: 

Psalm 110

Proverbs 3:1-12

James 4:11-17

For some, Proverbs 3:4-6 will conjure images of Sunday School and the rote memorization of particular Bible verses.  At least I do.  I remember being able to quote these verses, having some vague idea of what it meant to trust.  As a child, I think I was able to grasp this concept more easily than I can now as an adult.

We think of trust being easy for kids, but, I wonder, is it easy for children growing up in today's world that the adults in power and in leadership (whether in their homes or in their governments) have their best interests in mind?  Do we spend time thinking about the world we will turn over to future generations?  As we go to war over oil, are we worried about their being enough fossil fuels for our children to heat their homes?  As we decimate cities halfway around the world, are we worried about in what world the children in the Middle East will grow up?  We pay lipservice to leaving behind a better world for future generations, but I'm not convinced we will make good on our promises.  

This is all to say: I have trouble trusting that my generation will leave behind a better world for my children and grandchildren.  Perhaps this is my issue.  Perhaps, as we grow older, when our trust becomes frustrated, we become cynical and forget what it is to hope and what it is to trust: most specifically, I think we forget what it is to trust in God.

Our lack of trust often leads to judging others (bringing us to James' text).  We do not trust that another country will share their oil with the world market, so we go to war.  We do not trust that there will be enough money to support ourselves and the charities that need our money, so we stockpile it in hopes that we will have an abundance.

It is enough.  As our Jewish brothers and sisters pray during Passover, dayenu: it would have been enough.  The song, in its 15 stanzas, goes on to describe being freed from slavery, God's miracles, and relationship with God, singing "Dayenu" between each verse.  So often, we think of it the other way around: "God if you just did this, then I will trust you..." How different would our lives and our faith be if we prayed, "God, you have done all these things to show me your trustworthiness, and it is enough for me."  It is enough that we have come this far to trust that God will bring us into God's future.  We partner with God in God's creative work in the world in hopes that we, too, may catch a glimpse of the hope that comes when we truly trust in God.