My son David recently married “the girl next door” (almost
literally), and the reception was at our house. The day before the wedding,
my sons and I took an old porch swing from the barn and hung it from a
large branch. A few days after the wedding, the branch broke and smashed
the swing. The branch had looked solid, but it was rotten.
I am so grateful no one was sitting on the swing when that branch broke.
While no one was hurt, the smashed swing caused me to consider that
one of the greatest risks of all may be where we rest our hearts.
Some of us find rest in success or career. When work goes well, our
hearts find peace. But jobs are fragile branches. They cannot bear the
weight of our lives.
Some of us find rest in family. When our kids are good or when our spouse
loves us, our hearts find peace. But families are fragile branches. Our
spouse may die (in fact, will die), and our children will make mistakes,
and they too may suffer grave illness or death.
Some of us find rest in ministry. When our talks are loved and our blogs
are read and people are converted, our hearts find peace. But ministry
is a fragile branch. We can do everything right and not see fruit. Jesus
did everything perfectly, and he was murdered.
Jeremiah 17:7 says: Blessed are they who trust in the Lord, whose
trust is the Lord.
I think this verse says it is not enough to merely trust in the Lord.
If we stop there, it can in fact be a huge mistake.
What? Isn’t that heresy? Not if we see what Jeremiah is really saying
here. If we trust in the Lord to obtain what we rest our hearts on, we
actually may not trust the Lord himself. Our hearts may be resting on something
else, like a rotten branch.
What might we trust in the Lord for?
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Successful careers
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A loving spouse
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Financial security
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A happy healthy family
-
Approval of friends
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A successful ministry
If we are trusting in the Lord primarily to provide us those things, then
we are not really trusting in the Lord himself. Instead, we are trusting
in those things. What we call “trusting in the Lord” is simply using God
to get the things that we most trust in; we are manipulating God to get
what our heart most rests in.
And when those things fail – illness in the family, pink slips [job
termination] at work, seemingly fruitless ministry – then our hearts are
crushed because we’ve been resting our hearts on rotten branches.
The final phrase in the Jeremiah verse explains true heart rest: Blessed
are they … whose trust is the Lord.
When our hearts find rest in God alone, not in external circumstances,
then – and only then – we have found an enduring and solid rest. We often
cannot comprehend why God allows illness or pain or suffering; but we always
know God is using everything for our good. Pink slips may free us from
resting our hearts in career, and illness may save us from resting our
hearts in this world.
This world is crashing down; what we see around us is passing away.
God, and God alone, will last forever. As will those whose trust is
the Lord.
We are making big mistakes, and we are taking huge risks, until our
hearts rest in God alone, until our trust is
the Lord.
The biggest risk of all may be where we rest our hearts.
© Copyright 2010,
Beliefs
of the Heart, Ltd. All rights reserved.
Sam Williamson grew up in
Detroit, Michigan, USA. He is the son of a Presbyterian pastor and grandson
of missionaries to China. He moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1975. He worked
in London England from 1979 to 1982, helping to establish Antioch,
a member community of the Sword of the Spirit. After about twenty-five
years as an executive at a software company in Ann Arbo he sensed God call
him to something new. He left the software company in 2008 and now speaks
at men’s retreats, churches, and campus outreaches. His is married to Carla
Williamson and they have four grown children and a grandson. He has a blog
site, www.beliefsoftheheart.com,
and can be reached at Sam@BeliefsoftheHeart.com.
