Trust

The past year and its many upheavals has forced me to think hard about just where I place my trust, and what provides my peace. A president? A political party? The very nature and greatness of my nation? The stability and permanence of my cultural ideals? What I think of as “church?” The freedom to travel and shop and visit at will?

I realized that those things had each become idols to me.

So I’m discovering that my peace can’t depend on who is president. It cannot depend on whether some court or legislator or executive agrees with my notions. My peace also can’t depend on whether my nation looks the same as it used to. In fact, my peace can’t even depend on whether America survives, although I certainly pray it does.

Because I’ve read The Book, and I saw how it ends.

I’m not talking about whether or not the Lord defeats the devil. I’m talking about the very essence of Revelations: the Lord’s plan to fully mature His Church. In this time, Hebrews 12:27 seems relevant: everything that CAN be shaken IS being shaken, so that only those things which cannot be shaken may remain. The Lord seems to be systematically kicking out all the props that people depend upon to protect, provide for, and promote themselves. The Lord Himself is the only thing that can remain in a mature Church, as our object of worship and our source of provision, protection, and promotion.

So when the shaking increases, it’s no longer as fear-provoking – it’s a call to press in, and learn to trust my heavenly Father instead of all manner of unrecognized idols. I know that He will provide a way through it all, if I can depend on Him and not upon the dangerously deceptive systems of the world.

It became a lot easier to weather 2020 when I realized my trust was misplaced. I just have to turn away from those idols – especially those numerous things I hadn’t realized were idols.