The Next Step – Proverbs 3:1-8 – Part One
“Victor, Trust the Lord. I pray that you will trust the Lord in all that you do and learn to know and accept that you can trust Him.” That inscription in a book featuring one of my closest clergy colleagues significantly challenges and encourages me as I await further revelation of God’s will for my life. It is easy to spout the rhetoric of discerning, accepting and living within the will of Almighty God. Paul, in Romans 12:2, characterizes God’s will as “good, pleasing and perfect.” Church parlance heartens our recitation of these sayings. Yet, I must confess that I would like to glance at the grand mosaic of my life. In my mind’s eye, I would like to peel back the curtains of time of peek at what lies ahead. My curiosity is essentially positive as I expect greater blessings, spiritually and materially. However, I realize that burdens and adversities often accompany blessings and creature comforts. Because many difficulties and defeats usually precede the fulfillment of your destiny, prematurely opening the curtain results in a curse rather than a consolation. Trusting the inherent goodness of God is the answer to our myriad queries about what lies ahead.
Genuinely relying upon God is most difficult. The myth of the self-made person permeates the American psyche. I esteem former presidents, inventors, educators, athletes, artists, corporate magnates and other historical figures who began with very little and achieved the greatest heights in their professions. We recall Longfellow’s immortal adage, “The heights of great men achieved and kept; Were not obtained in sudden flight; But, they while their companions slept; Toiled upward in the night.” The poet vividly depicts the dreams, discipline and determination of these luminaries of American history and culture. From a spiritual perspective, this approach possesses a potential negative attribute if one becomes self-reliant and disregards the incalculable practice of seeking divine guidance. Proactive people prefer knowing what the future holds as they earnestly strive to determine the future. This dogged pursuit of goals and dreams usually relegates God’s usefulness to periodic consultations for the purposes of utilizing His divine power to accomplish objectives about which He was not approached previously. Self-determinative people proceed full speed ahead, ignoring the torpedoes, because they are afraid that someone or something will impede their progress. Stopping and affirming the will of God equates with yet another obstacle for them. Interestingly, the previous historical personality types adhered faithfully to a genuine spirituality, acknowledging their need of a power greater than themselves to accomplish the deepest desires of their hearts.
The desire for certain success is another impulse of the temptation to look down the corridors of time. You want to know all details will fall into place like pieces of a puzzle. Some people would like to avoid putting “sweat equity” into projects that may not succeed. They would rather know in advance that they will achieve and excel. This assurance motivates them to pay the costs of hard labor and time. Otherwise, they consider it an incredible waste of their energies and abilities. But, the vicissitudes of life will not accommodate our personal wishes for traveling in a straight line toward our vocational goals and heartfelt dreams.
These successful and spiritually committed people demonstrate the best virtues of Proverbs 3:1-8. This familiar passage reminds us of the necessity of genuinely relying upon Almighty God for direction in life. Trusting in God means we are willing to forsake the fallacies and temptations of self-reliance. Furthermore, it is an important daily spiritual discipline of abandoning one’s self to the total and unqualified will of the Lord. It is a process of emptying one’s self of desires, fears, and motives that prevent one from surrendering one’s whole being to God’s exclusive use. God works mysteriously within our characters to chisel away the rough edges of faithlessness and doubt and eliminate the defects of self-seeking ambitions and self-centered fears. The process of molding our characters and reorienting our desires toward serving Him by serving people commences with our willingness to assert that God’s will is best. In many circumstances, we may not understand the will of God. Actually, we may disagree vehemently. Yet, trusting in Him requires us to follow His lead notwithstanding our misgivings to the contrary. Practically speaking, trust means that we unconditionally accept and obey God’s leading particularly when most details appear incongruent.
Solomon, in this immortal passage, exhorts us to trust the Lord “with all your heart.” For the Israelite hearing this wisdom, his recommendation means trusting the Lord will all of his being: mind, heart, soul, spirit, psyche, body and will. The Lord Jesus expands this teaching into “The Great Commandment” (Matthew -40). The very first commandment necessitates that we love Almighty God with all of our beings. Charles De Foucauld’s “Prayer of Abandonment” and The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi yield practical images of recklessly abandoning yourself to God. Essentially, you trust God without any conditions or reservations.
“Lean not to your own understanding.” Solomon encourages us to divorce ourselves completely of self-reliance. The unimaginable achievements of science, technology, economics, and our burgeoning global village easily tempts us to believe that humankind’s destiny lies within our hands. Religion holds only a customary and cultural devotion for many people. If there is indeed anything significant to the pervasive belief in heaven, then some minimal religious commitment should suffice to gain entry into celestial realms after death. On an individual level, we may anoint ourselves as the “captains of our souls” and the ‘masters of our fates” in the words of William Ernest Henley’s “Invictus.” Doubt, disappointment, depression, debt and despair, all, await the person who greatly disregards the will of God. We cannot surmount the incontrovertible fact that we are finite beings subject to many variables in life. Does it not then make sense to believe steadfastly in an Infinite Being who will lead us graciously?
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