Trust & Understanding

In elementary school, we memorized 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.

It's a simple verse that's easy to recall. In fact it's so simple that I often take it for granted. Its meaning is even simplistic. It kind of makes me think of how Adam says, "I know, I know" when I tell him to do something. He's hearing but he's not really listening. And that's kind of how I've always looked at this verse. But this week-end one phrase jumped out at me and made sense in a new way:

Lean not on your own understanding

Understanding. That's an overused word in a mother's vocabulary. "Do you understand?" I'll ask Adam. Or I'll try to be understanding when a toy breaks. But there is so much more to the meaning of the word than that.

How many times have I said, "I don't understand, God" or "I don't understand why He's letting this happen to us"? A million easily. Not un derstanding is a huge frustration for me. But here in this verse we're very clearly commanded to not lean on understanding. To not rely on our understanding of a situation. Basically we're told to just trust and not try and figure it out. That's tough for me. I'm self-reliant and trust does not come easy. That along with my insatiable desire to always have a plan causes me to lean on my own understanding quite often.

I don't understand why Scott and I suffer certain trials and tribulations. It doesn't make sense to me. But it's not supposed to because I'm supposed to trust.

When I'm pursuing my own understanding of a situation instead of just trusting, I bounce around from theory to theory. If I were to drop a trail of crumbs behind me as I stumbled down the path to understanding I know it would be curvy, full of zig-zags with lots of bumps in the road. But look at the next verse:

In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight

Well duh. If' I'd just recognize that He's in control of it all and that He is mightier than anything I can do, I wouldn't have to stumble and bumble my way into understanding. My path of trust would be straight.

Then I started thinking about "one nation under God" and how our nation, whether we like it or not, is subject to God's rule. No matter how hard some try oust God from our money or our pledge, He is still in control. I'm taking great comfort in this this week as I'm pretty disappointed with the results of the election. I don't understand how we got here. I don't understand how Americans could believe our president-elect. I don't understand, I don't understand.

But then I'm not supposed to understand but to trust and know He's in control.