Natural Trust: Leaning on the Unknown

Proverbs 3: 5-6

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.


Today I attended Sunday Worship at Portico Church with a few friends. Today's service was the first time the people of the church came together in a new building and I could feel the energy pumping through the walls-- literally. There was a band and loud speakers and flat screens displaying multi-colored designs and lyrics to sing along to. The entire room was packed with eager young faces and as the lights dimmed and the guitar chords rang out, I felt strangely like I was at a rock concert instead of Sunday church.

At first I wondered, eyes wide, Is this really what it takes to get young people interested in GOD these days? God is not a video game, nor is he the latest entertainment fad. But then I started to look around to the people surrounding me.

In the middle of the audience there was a young, tall boy, with eyes closed, swaying to the music. His fist raised in the air, he was not watching the technicolor displays or metallic instruments on the stage. He was absorbed in something larger than himself. He was talking to someone who was listening. He was leaning on the unknown and trusting that it would support him.

What I've learned about God in my twenty years of life so far is that the divine presence does not coordinate with one's personal schedule. You can not pencil in your private date with God every Sunday morning as if you were scheduling a routine dental check-up. God will address you when you are ready. Where will you be when you give up trying to understand God and instead simply begin to know the divine spirit among all of us? It could be during a Christian Rock band performance on a Sunday morning or it could be as you crouch on the bathroom floor, leaning over the porcelain toilet on a rough Saturday night. Or it might never happen.

In every moment of my life, the deepest challenge I face is acknowledging the divine presence around me. Perhaps this is due to the fact that I do not like to be told which path to follow in life and thus by taking full control of my own life and relying solely on my own version of reality (or my own understandings of truth), I can lead a structured, secular life. I fill my life with abstractions and distractions so I am continually moving, writing, doing.

Yet, after a few days of living in auto-mode, I tend to break out and search for the sacred. I often gravitate towards the lush green of the outdoors and the fresh air of the woods. The one place that I do feel at peace to just be is in a quiet place outdoors, preferably by a natural body of water. There are many questions I would like to ask nature's spirits, but the only answer I need is the one holding me in place.

Immersed in nature, I trust in the divine, the unknown, and the impossible.