Life's Unexpected Turns and Trusting God

As I watched news reports of folks in Holly Hill being flooded out of their homes during our recent heavy rains, I thought about how life can take an unexpected turn: a flood, a fire, a death, a job loss, a diagnosis. The way things have been is not the way they will be. The familiar is taken away. Suddenly our future is not going to be what we always thought it would be. Now we are called upon to make new choices and move into a future we never thought would come for us.
I ask myself, “Am I strong enough on the inside to handle what life throws at me? Will I get shaken off of my foundation if circumstances beyond my control change my world?” I can’t know for sure how I will respond to sudden upheaval in my life. But this I do know: I want to be able to allow all the events of my life to be times of testimony when I can say that I trust God. Even when things come to me that I would not have chosen, I want to be able to learn and grow from the experience.

Here is the way Psalm 25:1-5 expresses our desire to trust God:
To You, O LORD, I lift up my soul.
O my God, I trust in You; Let me not be ashamed. . . .
Show me Your ways, O LORD; Teach me Your paths.
Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation;
On You I wait all the day.

Can times when things are going well and when I am strong and healthy be times of gathering strength for whatever may come my way tomorrow? I pray that my spirit is getting stronger. Tomorrow may bring pain and sorrow.

Not long ago, I asked a friend who is going through hard physical suffering, declining health, and living in a nursing facility, “How do you respond to these words of Jesus: ‘In this world you will have trouble, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world?’”

He answered quickly with, “I don’t understand and I don’t like what is happening,” then paused a couple of seconds and said, “but I trust Him.” If I face disappointment and pain like his someday, I hope I can say with my friend and with the Psalmist, “O my God, I trust in you.”