Years ago I was working at a school with a colleague quite a bit younger than I. She was going to a party and wanted to dress up in the style of the sixties. She was telling me that she needed a choker to finish out her outfit, but couldn’t find one. I told her I had kept several that I wore when I was younger. She paused, looked at me and then said, “You’re like, an original hippie!”
Truth be told, when the hippie movement was in full-swing, I was in middle school. But that didn’t stop me from wearing chokers, tie dye floppy hats and hot green (the word neon wasn’t really used yet for colors,) hip-hugger jeans! Not only did I embrace the clothing style, but also the philosophy of the day. This meant being an activist for a cause. I got a bracelet that had the name of a man who was MIA in Vietnam and watched the lists scroll on TV to see if my soldier had been found. He never was.
I believed in peace, not war, questioned the establishment, and cultivated a free spirit. (I have moved over 30 times in my life.) I became a teacher as a calling and as a way to touch the future. I truly believed I could make the world a better place.
If you can relate, you may be saying, yeah! and hearing the Beatles song, Hey Jude in your head. If you identify with a younger generation, you may be thinking, “How hokey” and laughing your
head off. Either way, let me return from Memory Lane and get to the point of this blog – trusting God.
Submitting to God
Huh? God has been working on me concerning submitting my will to His and obeying Him. Quite frankly, I’m having an awful time. It doesn’t help that I was born strong-willed, but I think it also has to do with the philosophy of the time I grew up. I’m not blaming, just reflecting.
I think my heart is in the right place, but I put too much stock in what I, personally, am able to do. You see, what I’m learning is that I can’t make peace, or the world a better place, but God can.
However, for God to use me to better this world, I need to submit to His will for my life. That means submitting to the ultimate authority. Whoooah, I have lived all my life questioning the people in charge, and now I’m supposed to just naturally submit to God? Guess what, it doesn’t come naturally. It takes reflecting on why it is so difficult and then step by step submitting to God – not just because I want to, but because it is the right thing to do. Well, you know, go big or go home, so I’m choosing to submit to the preeminent authority. This means understanding the falsities of the “hippie” philosophy. It’s not about what I can do, but what God can do through me. It’s Him finding the cause for me and then hopping onboard. It means obeying His will for my life.
Here’s a question: Why should I choose to trust God’s authority?
Trusting God
Questioning authority comes down to trusting who is in authority. When we come of age, and realize our first authority figures, our parents, aren’t perfect, we all go through a sense of insecurity. I remember having to apologize to my son for doing something stupid. I told him I wasn’t perfect, but that I try really hard to be a good mom, but I’m only human. This is the key. People in authority will always disappoint. They are after all, only human. God on the other hand is perfect. We may not understand why he does what he does, but then, we don’t see the whole picture, but He does.
If we don’t understand what God is doing, how can we trust Him? We learn from the past and from the testimonies of how God has helped others. King David recalled how generations before him called on God for help, and God was always faithful. If you have been a Believer for a while, reflect back on all the times God has come to your rescue. Even though He may not have answered our prayers the way we think they should be answered, when we remember how God has answered, His answer was much better than we could have expected.
In You our fathers trusted;
They trusted and You rescued them.
To You they cried out and they fled to safety;
In You they trusted and were not disappointed. Psalm 22:4 & 5
Because God is faithful, we can trust Him even though we may not get the answer we want from Him – like the death of a family member. When this happens, we need to continue to trust in His decisions. One thing we do know, is that when a person dies, he/she no longer suffers in pain in Heaven. Sometimes God takes people from this earth so that they don’t have to suffer. It is the best decision for that person.
Those of us who are left behind need to really lean on God to comfort us and help us move on in life. God knew we would experience situations beyond our understanding and He has told us to trust Him.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5 & 6
Trusting God for everything takes the pressure off. When we rely solely on ourselves, we are responsible for the outcome. Let’s be honest here, oftentimes the results of our own efforts is lacking. However, when we let God control the project, the end product becomes so much more than we could’ve imagined. This is because the Master engineer of the universe is establishing the project and then doing the work through us. We just need to trust God that He knows best, and wants the best for us.
For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for prosperity and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11
The more we trust God in every aspect of our lives, the more we will see Him working, and understand His ways. As you see Him working in your life, write it down. Then you can go back and remember how God was faithful to you.
The next time you feel your hippie coming to the surface, go ahead and put on your tie dye shirt, but then praise God for being a trustworthy authority for your life.
Photo Credit: © Lisa Law/The Image Works
Media Credit: https://www.clipartkey.com/view/wiowow_peace-1960s-free-svg-peace-sign/
