Ponder this:

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Trust

Sunday Scribblings prompt this week is "Trust."


I spent a lot of my life in search of a person in whom to place my trust. I wanted a kind face to look straight into my eyes and tell me, "It'll be all right," and I wanted to believe that somebody else knew, could ensure, that it all would be all right.



More than once I eagerly, frantically, piled all my eggs into one or another basket and watched, dumbstruck, as the baskets were left by the sides of roads, flung into traffic, stepped on by feet on their way out my door.


When the door closed behind the final set of departing feet, I was left with no eggs and no basket in which to place them.



And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. -Genesis 1:2
The crashing roar of my sandstone cliffs toppling into the ocean subsided, and in that moment of void, the realization came to me that . . . I was still breathing.

It was then that I began to grow out of the childhood that had held me in a needy grasp, and this is what I have learned:


I need, and am strong enough, to carry my own eggbasket. It is not that people are unkind; it is that the weight of my eggs is too great to add to their baskets.


I can, if I choose, put down the basket. It is not necessary that I carry it everywhere with me.


Trusting creates feelings of security, so long as the trust is properly placed.


I can trust no person, not even myself, to keep me safe.


What I can trust is the ongoing universe:
  • The sun will rise in the morning and it will set in the evening.

  • My autonomic nervous system is designed to assure that I will continue to breathe.

  • Winter will come and, please God!, go, and spring will follow.

  • Flowers will bud and bloom, and birds will return and make nests and lay eggs.

  • The eggs will hatch, new wet helpless chicks will be fed and fledge and fly...all without their conscious trusting that those things will happen. That's the Plan.

Life goes on.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart: lean not into your own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all thy ways and HE shall direct your paths". Proverbs 3:5-6
Let's me off the hook, so to speak, when I trust Him to keep me going :)

Mary said...

I tend to be a bit on the anxious side, which make trust a hard thing, but I always try to remind myself that everything always works out somehow.

I think I am going to borrow your statement "My autonomic nervous system is designed to assure that I will continue to breathe."

It completely fits the way I think.

Liza on Maui said...

Oh what a lovely Sunday Scribbling! Your word pictures are so fitting (and the photos are fitting too). Thank you for scribbling this and sharing it with us.

Unknown said...

"Trusting creates feelings of security, so long as the trust is properly placed."

This was a lesson I learned the hard way! Great post!

Tumblewords: said...

Lovely post! It reveals truth and trust in various shapes.

Anonymous said...

i like your metaphor. nicely illustrated.

Carolynn Anctil said...

Great post. I actually read this yesterday and am still mulling over the deeper meanings. It's quite a powerful bit of blogging you've done here.

Tigerbi said...

I love this blog.........