Trusting in God. What does it mean? Jeremiah takes us riverside to get something of an idea about its meaning. He writes that it is somewhat similar to a tree by waterside that thrusts its roots to the stream deep to absorb the river’s waters.
Last summer most people who lived in the DC area experienced something of the drought that turned most grassy yards and parks into fields of brown, dead grass. There was no natural green unless you walked on the grass or beneath the leaf-laden and cherry blossomed trees along the Potomac River.
These grassy river’s edges and trees had roots that worked their way int the soil moistened by the river’s flowing waters. When the scorching suns and rainless days made their only marks on calendars, the grass and trees felt no alarm, the grass was green and the cherry trees blossomed. Just as Jeremiah wrote to describe what life was like for those who trusted in God: no alarm when the "heat" is on, the grass always green the blooms never fail.
Quite the opposite picture is presented in Luke’s gospel where Jesus teachers the Pharisees about a rich man who trusted in his wealth and himself, who never trusted in Yahweh, who never cared for the needy or for the sick. When this man died, he was placed in the earth. His soul experienced alarm. He didn’t experiences the lush of thick green grass,. He didn’t find comfort in selfishness any longer. His influence couldn’t help his five brothers. He was in the burning drought of separation from the source of life, his God.
How can we apply these two scripture moments to our lives, especially as we make our way along the journey of life especially during a time of Lenten reflection? I would suggest we recall Fr. Henri Nouwen’s disciplines of spiritual direction: a genuine discipline of the heart and a serous diversion into reading, breaking open the Word of God, the writing of prophets, apostles and followers of Jesus in the Bible. They can help.
Do I have a genuine trust in the God who created me? How difficult it is! Imagine what life would be like without so much of what we have to make life easy. We’ve made our computers into gods who control our lives. We’ve allowed our televisions to consume so much of our time as princes in our technology world. So many have allowed work to master their lives rather than our God and our families. It is all that has made our world modern that has become a challenge to every man, woman and child. All of this has done so much to minimalize our trust in God. Like the rich man, most people today can easily become a victim of the riches of our times.
Is it a surprise , then, that faith and trust in God have so diminished? Where does time for prayer fit into the daily experience of life? And family life? How different it has become! Perhaps at this stop on our journey Nouwen’s two principles can speak much to our times. We need to put aside the distractions of our culture in order to allow us the time to strengthen our trust in God.
