For Dominion belongs to the Lord, and He rules over the nations.
Psalm 22:28 NIV
A while ago my husband and I went to Mexico for the first time. ( see my posts: Limited by Fear and The Fear That Holds You Back, I promise I will be through writing about this experience soon—maybe.) I was excited but also nervous as we prepared for this trip. I only had traveled internationally once before and had only been on a plane on two separate occasions in my adult life. When I was little I had flown quite a bit and, while I wasn’t afraid to fly, I was very apprehensive about all the other things, such as getting to my flight, making our connecting flight, going through customs, and finding the shuttle that was to take us to our hotel, and, hopefully, not getting kidnapped along the way—I would fit into a suitcase quite nicely!
While I was very nervous about all these things, I had one reason to not be afraid—my husband! He had flown a lot, and had even taken one more international trip than I had. He was old enough to remember how it was done! He would take care of me! So I told myself to relax and just let my husband take charge.
That Saturday morning we loaded up the car and headed to the airport. We were drinking coffee (we didn’t need), playing beachy sounding music, and getting even more wound up than we already were when suddenly my husband turned down the music and looked at me. “I have to tell you something,” he said. “I’m a little nervous about flying down to Mexico. Even though I’ve flown a decent amount, it’s always been in a group so I never needed to pay close attention. I just had to listen to whatever the group leaders told me to do. But we’ll be okay, right? You’re good with this stuff?”
It was one of the few times in my life that I was struck momentarily speechless. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry! He had been placing his faith in me and I had been placing my faith in him! Neither of us had a clue that we were each other’s back-up plan. I barked out a laugh and told him that I had been counting on him this whole time! So much for the plan I had constructed in my mind about how I was safe and my husband had it all under control. My plan was worthless. Incidentally, so was my husband’s plan.
How often do we do things like this? How often do we place our trust in ourselves, or in others, or in our circumstances, rather than the One who created it all? Just as I had a false sense of security in my husband’s travel knowledge, so do we have a false sense of security in anything we place our trust in other than God. Circumstances can, and often do change on a dime. Financial hardships arise. Health concerns spring up from nowhere. A loved one is taken away unexpectedly. The life we thought we built vanishes due to some unforeseen circumstance. Life happens and reality hits us. We have virtually no control over any of it, even when we think we do. Control is the word we use instead of faith.
We can feel one of two ways when we are confronted with this reality. One, we can feel terrified of every situation and live our lives in a constant state of fear and anxiety because nothing we do will ever be enough to insulate us from our worst fears. Or, we can feel comforted because no matter what happens, it was never really in our hands to begin with. Rather every situation, every circumstance, is under God’s auspices and everything that happens in this world is filtered through His hands first. This doesn’t mean that He causes bad things to happen, but rather He will sometimes allow bad things to happen because He knows what the ultimate plan is.
We made it to Mexico and back safe and sound. We didn’t get kidnapped, detained, or put in a Mexican jail. While neither of us were travel experts, we had done our research and prepared as much as we could, and oftentimes that is all we can do. We have to do our due diligence and let God handle the rest. Actually, all the time, all we can do is our due diligence and let God handle the rest. Shall we?
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