Endeavors and Trust

You can easily walk on a foot-wide beam at ground level, but you may quail at the very thought of doing it one hundred stories up in a skyscraper under construction, as steeplejacks do. It isn’t the width of the beam that makes it difficult; it’s the height of the beam from the ground. Similarly, our outlook on many things is not objective, but contingent on circumstances.

Perfect trust in God doesn’t alter our circumstances in life; it just allows us to accept those circumstances and to use them optimally for God’s glory. Trust, like a tenacious vine, clings to whatever is presented to it to cling to, and when there is little support, it clings all the tighter.

Peter had a trusting faith as he walked on the water at Jesus’ behest, yet when the circumstances changed, when the waves surged high, he faltered in that faith. A trusting faith enables us to walk on water, as it were; but, like Peter in his water-walking miracle, when our trusting faith weakens in the face of adverse circumstances and we find ourselves sinking in the turbulent waters that thrash around us, we should not hesitate to reach out to Jesus.

If you feel as if you are unable to do great things for the Lord because you lack talents, charisms, or sufficient education, you will tend to develop an inferiority complex. God sees you through rose-colored glasses, while you see yourself through drab-gray spectacles. Using whatever talents you have--and everybody has some--set yourself to “work . . . while it is day, for the night is coming when no one can work” (Jn 9:4). Or, take to heart the words of the psalmist and make them part of your life; they promise real self-assurance to those who master the art of trusting God: “Trust in the Lord and do good; so you will live in the land, and enjoy security” (Ps 37:3, emphasis mine).

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.