Trust and Delight
Join us on the app this Tuesday at 6 PM CST for a live Q&A with Dr. Troy Hinkel!
One
Restaurant
Have you ever gone to a restaurant and when it was time to order, you said, “Surprise me”? Maybe it’s because you trust the restaurant, or maybe it’s because you trust your spouse. But either way, you either tell the waiter or you tell your spouse to order for you.
Now this is what the saints are willing to do towards God. They say to Him, “Surprise me.” They don’t order their future, they let God order it for them. And the result is that they enjoy their lives a lot more.
Two
Why it Makes Sense to Have Someone Else Order for You
Imagine you go to a Michelen Star restaurant, and you know all the food is good but maybe all the names for the dishes and descriptions are written in some foreign language. So what you want is to have someone who knows you and knows the food. Then you can let them order for you, and you know it’ll be better than anything you ordered yourself.
Now in the case of the Lord, He understands all the options on the menu of your life. He knows what’s available and you have no idea. He knows you. He knows what you like, and He also knows what you would like if you gave it a chance.
So let Him order for you. And when something shows up in your life that you didn’t choose, trust Him, try it out, and try to enjoy it.
Three
If you don’t trust, you’ll have fomo
If you don’t trust the person who orders your food, you’ll very likely be wondering if there were something on the menu you’d like better. This is basically where FOMO, the fear of missing out, comes from in this life.
We worry that we’re not living our best life, that we’re missing out, that our life should be more meaningful, more exciting, more fun. But if you trust that God is your chef and your server, that everything that life throws at you is actually a dish that He’s serving you, that He’s catered specifically for you, then you can really dive into the circumstances of your life with gusto.
You don’t have to worry that “things aren’t going right” for you. That the situation you’re in is all wrong. God has decided that the situation you’re in is just right for you. And He should know. So accept it, try it, and you might find that you really enjoy it.
Four
If you don’t trust, you’ll get trapped in the narrow sliver of your own preferences
Some people, especially children, get totally trapped in their own preferences. They just dig in and refuse to try anything new, refuse to expand their palates. This has two effects
First, they get really angry if for some reason they can’t have what they’re used to. They sometimes throw a fit, or refuse to eat anything. But secondly, even if they get what they want, because their tastes are so narrow, they just eat the same thing over and over again. Then they get used to it and when you get used to something, you don’t notice it anymore, which means you don’t really enjoy it. You don’t appreciate it.
That’s what happens in our life if we don’t trust God to give us what He wants instead of what we want, when we get stuck in the narrow sliver of our preferences. Either something unexpected happens, and we throw a fit and go all to pieces. Or we get what we want, and we cling to that alone, and eventually life becomes a tedious, monotonous routine.
Either way, if you don’t trust the Lord enough to accept what He serves you, you’re not going to enjoy your life as much as God intends you to.
Five
We want surprises, but we want good surprises
We were designed for surprise, surprises make us happy, but only good surprises. To allow ourselves to be surprised, we have to believe that good surprises are coming. That demands trust.
St. John Henry Newman, in his magnificent poem, “The Pillar of the Cloud”, talks about how happiness is precisely found in not knowing, in not choosing, what the future has in store. He says,
“Lead thou me on, keep thou my feet. I do not ask to see the distant scene – one step enough for me!
“I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou shouldst lead me on
“I loved to choose and see my path – but now, Lead Thou Me On!”
That’s the prayer of trust, that’s the prayer of one who accepts God’s will in circumstances we can’t change which becomes the greatest way to be constantly surprised and delighted in this life.