Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight (Proverbs 3:5-6).

But I like my own understanding.  It makes sense, sorta…to me, anyway.  God’s ways, as he has pointed out, are not mine.  He doesn’t think the same way I do, and that frightens me.

I once did one of those challenge courses at a camp.  The counselor people put me into a safety harness, and then I had to shimmy up a 30 ft. pole, balance on the 12-inch platform on top, and…leap.  The harness and rope would lower me gently to the ground, or so I was told.  I just had to trust the harness.

With all my heart…and skull…and various internal organs.

My own understanding told me that I was going to die.  In great, unrelenting pain.  My own understanding made perfect sense…and was completely wrong.  I climbed, I balanced, I trusted, I leapt, and the harness held me.

God is ever so much stronger than a nylon harness.  So why do I have so much trouble trusting him?

He has a straight path for us to walk.  The problem is that it doesn’t always look straight when seen in the funhouse mirrors we like to call reality.  Which is why we have to trust him, to believe that he has us on his mind, in his heart, and under his protection.  Essentially, you have to believe that the God of the Universe, who created time itself and loved you enough to die for you, knows what’s best and wants what’s best.

So…do you?