Trust

 

Over the last few weeks in church, we have listened to and leaned into the narrative of Elijah.  How he trusted God to pitch his tent by the stream and let an unclean/forbidden bird of the raven bring him a trampled turtle for breakfast.  How he crossed over barriers and boundaries into a foreign place when God told him to go to Zarephath.  And there he talked to a widow who taught Elijah about trust, because God had also appeared to her.  The thread and theme of trust is woven throughout scripture.  According to one scholar the word "trust" appears 134 times in the King James Version of the Bible.  Trust is one of those words that sounds great but can be hard to practice.  We all have a story of our adolescent self who told a friend that we liked someone, only to have that person spread gossip behind our back.  We all have a story of our working self who trusted a colleague, only to have that person tell our boss.  Trust, like its cousin “love”, can be fragile.  Trust when broken shatters into a thousand sharp shards that can leave us broken or bitter.  One of the beautiful parts of the Hebrew language is that there are several different words for trust.  And each of these words has a connection to something that is tactile and tangible.  For example, there is the Hebrew word, chasah ~ the image here is leaning on someone.  Insert Bill Withers singing, “Lean on me when you're not strong and I'll be your friend I'll help you carry on”. 

That is going to be stuck in your head all day long now…you are welcome. 

But the Hebrew word, chasah, is to physically lean on someone.  If you twist an ankle, you lean on someone for support and help with balance.  Or the kind of trust you feel in an embrace that aligns your emotional and physical self.  Trust is not abstract or obtuse here, trust is an experience in our life.  Listen to the ways the Psalmist describes and defines this kind of trust, “The LORD [is] my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust.” (Ps 18:2).  The great thing here is that invisible trust is made visible in a rock we can touch or a fortress where we can weather the storms of life or the strength of an arm to support.

When have you experienced and encountered this physical, tactile, touch of trust? 

How does that human moment point us to a way to live trusting God?

May our prayerful pondering today awaken us to God’s presence that supports us both literally and metaphorically ~ God who shows up physically, emotionally, spiritually, and relationally this day.  Amen.