It was a momentous day, and I thought I knew why. Boy, did I have another thing coming.
It happened on an early morning in late August 1976. I was about to enter a new phase in my life called “college.” And today was registration day.
Preparations for this day had begun several years earlier. I was blessed to have one of those life-changer teachers in high school who saw it as her mission, partly, to give us a taste of what university life would be like. And I have to say, thanks to her, to whatever degree I may have dissed schoolwork in high school, I had my game face on now.
This was college. This was serious.
Advisors and friends had also prepared me for what to expect when freshmen show up at registration.
“You want what class? Nice try. That class closed when the sophomores came through here yesterday.”
Nevertheless, I had made out a schedule, and thought it was a good fit for me. I was excited. But I also wanted to be teachable and flexible.
Oh yeah, and godly.
So before I left for the campus, I knelt beside my bed and laid out my pre-designed schedule in front of me. And I began to pray. My prayer went something like this:
“Lord, I just lay this schedule before You. You know this is what I want, and what I believe You want.”
[Note: Ever notice how we tend to fuse our desires into God’s? Anyway…]
“But God, I am willing for You to change anything You want to change.”
What happened next took place in a matter of seconds. But it so moved me, so impacted me, it has shaped my life for years since.
As I waited in silence before the Lord, I heard Him speak. In words. Eight, to be exact.
Audible? Yes, to my heart. With tone, and inflection, and emotion.
I can count on one hand (with two fingers left over, I think) the number of times I have heard the Lord speak in such a manner. This was the first of those. And though written words will never, ever do it justice, this is what He said:
“Will you trust Me? Will you trust Me?”
I don’t have the words to describe the tenderness in His voice, the love with which He whispered to me, along with the yearning He had for something I had yet to offer Him.
I melted.
I wept (sorta rare for me in those days).
“Yes,” I cried. “I will trust You.”
I left orientation that day with a completely different schedule. More importantly, I left with a completely different heart.
Since then, regardless of where I have wandered, what I have faced, or who I have faced it with, the core issue behind that haunting, tender question has remained the same.
Will you trust Me?
The same could be said of you.
When you’re pulled in sixteen different directions and fifteen seem impossible, will you trust Him?
When your future looks bright and your self-confidence has you walking on air, will you trust Him?
When you’re lonely and confused, and your rocking world has caused you to question everything you believed is true, will you trust Him?
When you’re struggling to know what decision to make, and all the options look the same, will you trust Him?
When your heart is broken through grief or loss, or you’re left to second-guess the choices you have made, will you trust Him?
When you’re standing before God and those witnesses, vowing to give yourself completely to another for a lifetime, will you trust Him?
When you’re holding a seven-pound bundle of lungs and limbs, completely dependent on you for survival, will you trust Him?
When your precious angel morphs overnight into an eye-rolling, hormone-raging, gang-chasing, drama queen or king, will you trust Him?
When your job becomes just a job, and a dead-end one at that, will you trust Him?
When you’re presented with a now-or-never, look-or-leap opportunity, will you trust Him?
When your heart is broken because the people you trusted most have betrayed you, and you have no clue who to trust or where to turn, will you trust Him?
When you’re left, or fired, or rejected for the third time, and you wonder what’s the use in ever trying again, will you trust Him?
When you’ve offered your best, and had it coldly handed back to you, will you trust Him?
When your money is a mess, and there seems to be no way out of the mire, will you trust Him?
When you’re broke-down and bleeding, feeling stupid because of your colossal failures, will you trust Him?
When you’re standing at the cemetery, trying to make sense of it all, and the comfort of friends and family doesn’t quite say it all, will you trust Him?
When you’re walking through the valley of the shadow of death yourself, and evil calls from every side, will you trust Him?
The issue in the Garden was the issue in the Exodus was the issue at Jericho was the issue with the Judges was the issue with the kings was the issue with the prophets was the issue with the Son of God was the issue with you just yesterday. “All things are possible, if you only believe.”
Will you trust Him?