St. John Nepomucene

Without Trust We Rust

A phrase to take home with you could be, “Without Trust, We Rust.”  The word, trust, begins with the letter T and ends with the letter T.  I could say the word, Trust, begins with the Cross and ends with the Cross.  God has given us everything we need in Jesus Christ.  We are called to accept Christ as Our Lord and Savior and surrender our lives to Him.

We have a picture of the Good Shepherd in our church by the school side entrance.  The Good Shepherd wishes to take care of all our needs.  All we have to do is listen to His voice.

Underlying the Gospel of the Beatitudes is this structure…

There is a need and God will minister to that need.  All that is needed is to trust in God.  It is interesting to note that the motto, “In God we trust” is written on our money.  Pick up a coin or a dollar bill periodically.  Read the motto, “In God we trust.”  Ask yourself on the operational level, right now in the midst of this problem, in the midst of this difficulty; do I really trust on the operational level that God is taking care of me and those I love?

Can I surrender control of my life to God?  Everyone here knows that he or she should surrender his or her life to God.  Most likely as one scripture puts it, “Entrust your cares to God because God cares for you.”  Intellectually, most likely everyone knows that God cares for you.  But on the operational level, when life is difficult, when there are problems, when you or loved ones are suffering, it is difficult to live in that trust.

Praying the prayer, “Jesus, I trust in you” over and over is a possible remedy.  Praying Psalm 23 over and over, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.”  This means I shall lack for nothing is a possible solution.

As I have said from time to time, there is a maxim that goes like this, “If you pray, why worry; if you worry, why pray?  You cannot do both at the same time.  They are mutually exclusive.  How can I say that?  When you pray, you have a positive faith picture.  You are the lamb in the arms of the Good Shepherd.  The Good shepherd is taking care of everything.  So you are not worrying.

Well what happens if I find myself worried?  It means I have lost the faith picture.  I am looking at things solely dependent on outside sources or myself.  The solution is I need to retrieve the positive mental picture of the Good Shepherd taking care of me, you, our loved ones, the person in need. 

There used to be a commercial that showed a picture of a house in two hands and you would hear a voice say, “You are in good hands with Allstate.”  Allstate was a company that stated they would take care of you and your house.  You can look at your hands and say figuratively, I am in good hands because God loves me.  My life is in God’s hands.  If you have a problem, a difficulty, personal suffering or the suffering of a loved one, put all these in God’s hands.  Trust God is taking care of you and those you love.

One of the final statements of Jesus on the Cross was “Father into your hands, I commend my spirit.”  Both in life and in death, we surrender ourselves to God’s loving care.  We trust that we are in good hands because we are in God’s hands.

Today, let us pray that we may grow in our trust that God has a loving plan for you, me and those we love.  As we grow through life and face life’s difficulties, let us trust that God is with us every step of the way.