A Posture of Trust
I can trust that God will take care of things for me as I faithfully and obediently follow Him.
Several months ago, I attended a conference with other pastors and Christian leaders. I arrived at the conference center quite early on the second day of the event when the hotel staff was still setting up. As I entered the area where the conference was being held, I spotted one of the hotel staff members singing (quite loudly, I must add) the lyrics to an old hymn that many of us are quite familiar with. The lyrics to the hymn go like this: "Trust and obey, for there is no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey." It was such an odd but wonderful sight to see this gentleman singing to the Lord while attending to his regular duties.
It reminded me of the posture of simple trust and obedience to God that I need every single day. In fact, I need to trust God even more as I further practice becoming a modern monastic. Engaging in the spiritual disciplines of prayer, worship, meditation, Scripture reading, and contemplation take up quite a bit of time and energy every day. I usually spend anywhere from three to four hours each day just engaged in spiritual practices. An obvious consequence of this is that I have far less time for everything else in life. In particular, I have less time to get work and projects done. In my line of work, that usually means I have far less time to prepare for sermons and Bible studies or I have far less time to spearhead programs and activities.
But the lack of time I experience on a regular basis brings a different kind of opportunity: it's an opportunity to trust God for those things. By choosing to pray for lengthy amounts of time rather than working on sermons or programs, I'm trusting that God will take care of those things for me. Of course, I will still do my very best with the little time that I have when it comes to preparing for sermons or organizing programs. But inevitably, I will not have as much time as I want or as I'm used to. That's where trust comes in. If I come before the Lord in ample times of prayer and meditation, I believe that God will honor my spiritual posture and help me with the things that I have less time for. God is so much bigger, stronger, and wiser than I am. Therefore, I can trust that He will take care of things for me as I faithfully and obediently follow Him by diving deeply into spiritual practices every day. I can leave things in the hands of God as I pray to Him.
Trust is a key posture for modern monastics. Without it, we'll constantly be wondering whether or not we're spending way too much time in prayer rather than working. But with trust, we can fully engage in lots of spiritual discipline without worry or guilt, knowing that God can and will take care of everything else. Jesus, Himself, said these words that we can count on every single day: "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (Matt. 6:33 NIV). May we seek His Kingdom and His righteousness first knowing that He will take care of all the rest.
Barnabas the Monastic
Servant of Christ. Husband. Dad. Modern Monastic. I have a wild ambition in life: get as close to the Lord Jesus Christ as I can while on earth. I explore and integrate ancient Christian monk wisdom in modern everyday life. Lives in Canada.
