Trust.

It’s one of the big lessons infants learn from their first breath (maybe before). It’s how you answer that unspoken question that forms your personality: can I trust the world I’ve been born into? 

Infants who cannot count on somebody to keep them fed, dry, warm and safe go throughout life wonder who, how, when, whether to trust. They’re more susceptible to anxiety than others are.

Societies also face anxiety. Look what happened to the mighty U.S. economy when people discovered they couldn’t trust some mortgages to be repaid. Without trust (another name for which is faith) the stock market took a dive, banks froze, and Everywo/man got gut kicked and still haven’t recovered.

Society dictates: you individuals, build a hedge made of money. Earn it, save it, invest it. Earn it, save it, invest it. Earn it, save it, invest it. Earn it, save it, invest it. Earn it…

Nations: build that border fence high, back it with armies, guns, missiles. Power! Power counts—economic, cultural, scientific, technological power, know how.

We print on our money “In God We Trust”; we elect politicians who argue who shouts loudest “One Nation Under God!”, and after terrorist strikes sing “God Bless America.” But we spend that money on guns, bombs, missiles.

Somebody said if you want to know a people’s gods, follow the money.

I’m struggling with trust today. All my life I’ve trusted God—not perfectly, mind you, but steadfastly. I’ve found I can count on the God of Jesus in all times and all circumstances. If the tone of this post seems a bit strident, it’s because I’m preaching to myself, not you.

In a scripture search at BibleGateway.com I’ve just discovered that God says four times (Deut. 31.6,8; Josh 1.5; Heb 13.5): “I will never leave you or forsake you.”

So, I’ll trust God, who’s never let me down.

I discovered that the author of the screenplay forged from Seven Pillars was Robert Bolt. Among his credits are:

• A Man for All Seasons
• Dr. Zhivago
• The Mission
• Ryan’s Daughter

That’s quite a line-up. His theme often was the individual over against…society, power, and so on.

Very highly recommended: Faith Like Potatoes. First film from the South African production company? Tells the true story of Jill and Angus Buchan, a farmer in Africa, who gives his life 110% to God and whom God uses in amazing ways thereafter. The script is beautiful, simple. In Special Features we meet the real-life Angus Buchan and people around him. The whole film is clearly a work of love and faith that will lift your spirit and challenge you to have faith like potatoes (invisible until harvest).

One point of the film is the contrast between the complacent tepid faith in much of the West, where Bibles lie unread on shelves, and the hunger for God’s Word in Africa, where people scramble for even portions of scripture.

He says often we set out to do something for God and ask God to bless it. Rather, we’d do better to wait upon God and do  what God asks, no matter how impossible it seems. Often, this means climbing out of the boat and taking that first step on the water—then, keeping our eyes on Jesus for each step thereafter. Angus has done amazing things, and never taken an offering! He also doesn’t build his own ministry, simply strengthening ministries in place. At his home farm in South Africa, there is an orphanage and a school, as well as a working farm. The Buchan home is built in Zulu fashion, not the most prominent building on site. Trust me, you will like this film—it’s inspiring and mind-bending, too.

• The Secret Strength of Depression by Frederic Flach, MD. 4th ed. The title attracted me. Also, since it’s been through four editions, and received high praise from Library Journal et. al., I considered it a good bet for bibliotherapy (therapy by reading). It has met my expectations. Describes depression as the result of recognizing that you’re trapped in various ways. The depression comes about when previously effective ways of coping no longer work so well. The hope of escaping traps once you’ve recognized them is the secret strength. The book has great chapters on various treatments, including antidepressant meds, chapters on age groups, “Depression and Spirituality,” etc. A fine book. Highly recommended.
• The life of the Buddha and its lessons. Worthless. Arrrgh!
• The Hidden Life of the Soul by Jean Nicolas Grou. What I’ve read so far is excellent. Grou was a French Jesuit scholar who lived through the French Revolution by escaping to England, where he served as chaplain and spiritual director to a wealthy Anglo-Catholic family. The last 10 months of his life he was confined to a chair because of illness. He writes with lucidity and depth about the life of the soul in God. This book is no longer in print but available in digital form from amazon/kindle and Project Gutenberg.

Living water, John 7

37 On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, ³⁸and let the one who believes in me drink. As^* the scripture has said, “Out of the believer’s heart^* shall flow rivers of living water.” ’ ³⁹Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit,^* because Jesus was not yet glorified.

I grew up in the desert SW, and knew the importance of water. If you approached El Paso del Norte from the air, you saw a line of green snaking through the desert, the Rio Grande. Where there was water, the land was lush with trees and vegetation of all kinds; without water, it was barren, waste.

We kept a five gallon water canteen in the car. Every vacation began with the Reader’s Digest story of the family breakdown in the desert; they survived by collecting urine.

I think of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ sonnet, ending with the line: “Mine, O thou lord of life, send my roots rain.”

Hopkins, one of the great poets of the 19th century, a parish priest, whose dense poetic style militated against the conventions of the Victorian age. I often pray his prayer: “Send my roots rain!”

The old Gospel song promises, “There shall be showers of blessing!”

At a meeting of area churches in a large building with a metal roof, there came an intense rain storm. They tried to out-sing the thunder of the rain pelting the roof. Why not be silent, and listen in awe!

Many folks are turned off by “Jesus meek and mild” as portrayed by fundamentalists.

Yes, Jesus has been shamelessly appealed to, to keep the oppressed down, to sanction “spiritual wickedness in high places” in these United States.

But oh! the Son of God,
who comes to seek in desert places
my lost and often erring heart,
who brings to me the still waters
of his still small voice,
who knows the secret places of the heart,
to other folk so like the dark side of the moon.

He is the living water,
the pure cold artesian spring,
bubbling up from the deep,
to wash,
to quench,
to float the soul in peace.