Trusting God By Dr. Rob McKenna

Trusting God Amid Your Longing

How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken. But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

Psalm 13:1-5 ESV

We understand that David is human when we pause before verse 5 of Psalm 13. He is like us. He knows what it means to feel a deep sense of longing and even to doubt the Lord’s providence and presence in his life. His statement is powerful because it is real, and his willingness to speak those words of longing and despair out loud tells us something else. It tells us that he trusts the Lord. How could he have the courage to express his questions and doubts if he didn’t?

Trusting an Incarnate Savior

The word incarnate is used to describe the person of Jesus. It means “in the meat” or “in the flesh”. Jesus being the incarnate God implies that he came in a form like us. He not only knows our frailty, doubts, and greatest fears – he lived them. He lived in the flesh and walked this earth. He not only redeems us out of our despair, but he sits with us in it. If he hadn’t revealed himself that way, would we ever have been able to trust Him and let him into the darkness that comes over us so often?

Tunnels and Trust

There is a mile-long retired train tunnel near my home in Seattle that you can walk or ride your bike through. It is so long that it is pitch dark when you are in the middle of it. At one point, when the exit to the tunnel comes into view, the light of that exit is a speck on the horizon in the darkness. You can see it, but just barely. It plays tricks on your eyes because it is so far away. But it is there.

In the church I grew up in, I often felt like Jesus was above me and my experience. While I believed He loved me, I wasn’t sure he would be with me in my darkest moments. I think inside, I felt that God might relate to me from a distance but not be with me. I would go so far as to believe that He was better than my experience and despair and that my goal was to reach His level. Now that I am older, have read scripture, and experienced God through it, I have a different view. It was never my job to come up to the level of Jesus because he had already come to meet me at mine.

My experience in that tunnel is a powerful representation of the change in my perspective as I experience and know the incarnate Jesus. While I used to feel like Jesus was at the end of that tunnel and just waiting for me to walk the distance to the end and meet Him there, I now know that he is there at the end and sitting right beside me amid the darkness. His incarnation made that unimaginable possibility a reality. We believe in a God who is not above our despair and suffering but in it with us. He sits in the darkness with us and says, “I understand your suffering. I was there. I know it personally, and I will sit with you in it. When you are ready to stand, I will walk you toward that light and meet you there. I will be with you now as we walk and as you exit the darkness.”

Trusting God and Each Other

To trust God is to know God. In the first four verses, David’s despair tells us about his relationship with the Lord. They tell us that He knows God, and God knows him. His willingness to speak his questions out loud tells us that he is suffering and has been suffering for a long time. It tells us of his pain and even his shame. And, in the end, it tells us of his trust. Even before he makes the profound statement, “But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation,” we know there is trust there.

Trust in Each Other

Every person we work with, live with, or are friends with will come to these moments of despair and hopelessness. They will arrive at these moments and may feel completely isolated. It is the most common human experience that ties us together. Our despair is absolute. If we are to trust each other and trust God, we must know each other and know God. We must face our frailty head-on in the fleshy, fragile reality of our lives, and we must unveil ourselves and put our deepest needs, fears, and faults in the light with each other and God. When we do that, we take a step toward trust, even before we fully trust each other. Like David, we must live our despair and fear in the light – even amid the darkest moments, and we must realize that the character of our God is of One who sits with us, walks with us through it, and leads us toward the light at the end of the tunnel.

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Dr. Rob McKenna is the CEO and Founder, of WiLD Leaders, Inc. and named one of the top 30 I-O Psychologists alive today, Dr. McKenna is passionate about developing whole leaders, increasing performance and well-being, and creating whole and sustaining trust.

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