Trust Falls & Other Lessons
I do not own the rights to this photo. This photo belongs to Hamilton College.
When I was in college. a friend of mine thought it would be really funny to do spontaneous trust falls around campus. Picture this: One day I was walking across the bridge on my way to class when I ran into N. He gave me a sly smirk before yelling at the top of his lungs, “trust fall,” where he proceeded to fall into my arms. Mind you, I was carrying a bunch of books in my hands which went flying everywhere. He laughed out loud when all I wanted to do was punch him in the face. I promise you I didn’t, but it did cross my mind. All was forgiven until he attempted to do this again. This time I was ready. My hands were empty and I caught him. I could have just let him fall of course, but the people pleaser in me wouldn’t dare do it. Although it would have been funny.
Have you ever had to do a trust fall? Maybe at a retreat, youth camp or work event of some sort. I didn’t mind being the one catching the person as much as being the one falling. Either way it would freak me out because 1) I didn’t want to drop the person and show how weak I was and 2) what if they didn’t catch me when it was my turn and I suffered a minor concussion? Anyone else have these same thoughts or am I just super dramatic?
Now, imagine the Lord asking you to do a trust fall into His arms. How would that feel? Would you trust Him to catch you or picture the worst case scenario? What if it’s something else He’s asking you to trust Him with and put in his hands? Maybe it’s your finances, your desire for a spouse, a child, a home, a far fetched dream? Do you believe He’ll take care of it and not let it slip through His fingers? Do you trust He’ll keep it safe? These are the questions I’ve been battling with ever since the Lord gave me the worst “trust” as my word of the year.
The thing is this year did not start the way I pictured it at all. It started with my family and I being quarantined and sick. I had no desire to even get out of my bed, but as a mother I had to push through to take care of my 2-year-old. Before sickness came, I felt super excited about the start of 2024. The idea of a clean slate, new goals, new habits and all things that come with a new year, but instead I found myself struggling to even make it through the day.
I don’t know what your year has looked like so far. Maybe it’s already had a rocky start. Maybe you feel like you’ve already failed at some of your goals because life happens. But I want to encourage you today to trust God. Trust that He’ll help you bounce back. That he’ll restore your health, your hope, whatever it may be. And that He’ll take care of your today and your tomorrow.
I want to leave these verses with you to close (Matthew 6:25-34):
25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one [j]cubit to his [k]stature?
28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not [l]arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.