Crises and Trust

I was transfixed, like other TV viewers, watching a child in a third-story window of a burning apartment building as the firemen in the street below were yelling for her to jump into the waiting rescue net they held. As the flames and smoke behind her grew terrifyingly close, one firefighter coaxed the little girl to jump, by yelling that the net was just like the playground trampoline on which she had played. With this, the child’s hesitancy was finally overcome, and she desperately leaped into the rescue net.

In any real crisis, our motivation needs to be stimulated with extra vehemence. It’s preferable to have our motivation heightened while confronting the minor day-to-day crises than it is to wait for the inevitable big crises. The practice motivation that is the easiest (and most sanctifying also) is that of trusting in the Lord to get us through it in the context of his holy will. That practice trust can be found in such things as devout reflection on the words we usually mumble unthinkingly in the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy will be done.”

Having survived a few rather serious California earthquakes, I’ve tried to renew my motivation for coping with future quakes by attempting to earthquake-proof my often-unstable trust in God. I do this by using the following scenario, replayed often in my mind, as if on a tape recorder: In any quake, I will either survive or I won’t. If I do survive, then God is to be praised for preserving my life. If I don’t survive, God is to be praised for starting at that time a new life for me in heaven. Either way I win! With this motivation, I sometimes find myself almost wishing I wouldn’t survive, since I can hardly wait to get to heaven. Paradoxically, my nonsurvival would expedite my wish fulfillment! That may sound crazy, but it’s theologically and spiritually tenable.

D-Day was perhaps the most critical day of World War II, with inclement weather, communication problems, coordination challenges, and many other difficulties. The master military engineer of that venture was General Dwight D. Eisenhower. After a period of deepest prayer, he launched the invasion, remarking to his aides before retiring for a brief rest, “Religion gives one the courage to make decisions that must be made in a crisis, but also the confidence to leave the results to a higher Power. Only by trust in God can anyone carrying responsibility find repose.” (Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations, Assurance Publishers, P O Box 753, Rockville, MD 20851)

Minor crises may be common things, like realizing that your bills are high and your bank account is low, or noticing that your gas tank is perilously near the empty mark when you are driving in a desolate area. Bigger crises are less frequent but they certainly tax our strengths, at least morally, even if not always physically. God is with you when you’re shipwrecked, but in your frenzied effort to survive don’t row for shore through the rocky shoals. Use your critical ingenuity to the utmost, but don’t leave God out of the picture. Even battle-scathed soldiers with little or no religious convictions accepted the battlefield bromide spawned in World War II: “There’s no atheist in a foxhole.”

This excerpt is from the book Pathways of Trust, by John H. Hampsch,C.M.F., originally published by Servant Publications. It and other of Fr. Hampsch's books and audio/visual materials can be purchased from Claretian Teaching Ministry, 20610 Manhattan Pl, #120, Torrance, CA 90501-1863. Phone 1-310-782-6408.