Dai­ly Reflec­tion
August 18, 2007

Today’s scrip­ture read­ings speak to me of trust and obe­di­ence. Joshua tells the Israelites that, “As for me and my house­hold, we will serve the Lord.” The Psalmist pro­claims, “You will show me the path to life.” And in Matthew, “Jesus teach­es the dis­ci­ples through chil­dren, say­ing the King­dom of heav­en belongs to such as these.”

I love Joshua’s speech to the Israelites. Do you remem­ber how God brought us out of Egypt, took care of us and per­formed great mir­a­cles? And you know how you’ve been wor­ship­ping idols recent­ly? This is not a good thing. You need to trust and serve the Lord. Or be ready for a whup­ping. Pret­ty sim­ple. And in Matthew, peo­ple bring chil­dren to Jesus for his bless­ing. And the dis­ci­ples rebuke them. But Jesus uses the moment to teach the dis­ci­ples. Christ embraces the chil­dren and tells the dis­ci­ples that, instead of dis­dain­ing the chil­dren, they should aspire to be more like them. Trust­ing. Remem­ber the old hymn? Trust and obey, for there’s no oth­er way, to be hap­py in Jesus, than to trust and obey. That’s what today’s scrip­ture seems to be about.

Trust in God. Obey God. Seems pret­ty sim­ple. So why is it such a hard thing to do?

My fam­i­ly vaca­tioned recent­ly in Yel­low­stone Nation­al Park. It was won­der­ful. Incred­i­ble scenery. Wildlife of all sorts. Beau­ti­ful weath­er. It was a mem­o­rable and relax­ing vaca­tion. Final­ly, we loaded up in the van and start­ed our long trek home. We had been on the road a few hours and as we approached the town of Teto­nia, Ida­ho, I asked if any­one need­ed a rest stop. Zach, my 16 year old, said he need­ed to stop. He went on to say that he was hav­ing chest pains and trou­ble breath­ing. That got our atten­tion right away. We stopped at a gas sta­tion and by the time we got Zach inside, he was white as a ghost, phys­i­cal­ly ill and gasp­ing. His right lung had par­tial­ly col­lapsed. It was a fright­en­ing moment as Zach lay on the floor of the restroom gasp­ing for breath. The peo­ple in Teto­nia were kind, com­pas­sion­ate and help­ful. We got Zach sta­bi­lized and I asked a young man for direc­tions to the near­est hos­pi­tal. It would be a 60 mile dri­ve over the moun­tains. We loaded Zach in the van and start­ed down the curvy high­way to Jack­son, Wyoming. As we zoomed down the high­way, I came upon a slow-mov­ing, large trac­tor. I slowed down and became very frus­trat­ed that I could not get around this guy. As we approached the top of a hill, the trac­tor dri­ver sig­naled me to go around. I zoomed around him and waved my thanks as I went by. Lat­er, I thought about the fact that I had placed my life and the life of my wife and chil­dren in the hands of a stranger. I could not see over the hill, but the trac­tor dri­ver, sit­ting much high­er, could see. When he sig­naled me to go around, I trust­ed him com­plete­ly. A total stranger. Some­one I knew noth­ing about. Why did I think I could trust him? When he sig­naled me around, why did I obey?

Isn’t it fun­ny. I know God. I know God loves me. I know God cares for me and wants only the best for me. God is trust­wor­thy. God sees the road ahead of me. And yet, when I come to a bump in the road and get a sig­nal or prod or any sort of guid­ance from God, I’m hes­i­tant to take it. Why? Why do I think I always know what’s best for me? Why wouldn’t I trust God? My prayer today is for those of us who love God, yet still have prob­lems with trust and obe­di­ence. And by the way, Zach had a tube insert­ed into his chest to drain the air and allow his lung to re-inflate. As of this writ­ing, he is heal­ing and doing very well.