Let's Talk Therese/Ep 3: Do you trust me?
- Nicole
- Jan 4, 2020
- 3 min read
Many people I’ve met tend to be guarded and for good reason you might think. They have trusted someone in the past and have been let down. As a defense mechanism, they are more cynical and wary of people’s intentions. Some might even muse “it takes years to build trust and a minute to destroy it”. Indeed the evil one would lead us to believe that we need not trust anyone or anything. Admittedly, placing our trust in Him is an even bigger leap of faith. We may be accustomed to the failings of man and been conditioned into thinking that one should not blindly trust another. Indeed we have all somewhat been wounded when it comes to trust. Our distrust of each other feeds into our distrust of God. We are scared of Him and run away instead of trusting Him completely.
God does not expect of us that we be absolutely perfect, but that we give him our trust – trust that has to be total.
How beautiful it is, to be loved in our imperfect nature, where He desires nothing more than our trust. And not a partial trust, but 100% trust! He desires for us to give to him, all our trust, like a little child giving all his trust to his loving father. We may fight against this surrender as we are afraid. Let us pray then to the Holy Spirit to help us trust Him more and more, little by little. The battle to be human is ongoing, as our own desires precede God’s plans for us. The work of restoring trust in Him is ongoing and we may never fully be there, yet we can make slow progress every day. What does this progress look like? It can mean something as simple as refusing to be agitated by difficult circumstances but to do our best and to rely trustingly on God to allow His plan to work in our lives. It can mean giving a name to the foremost worries on our minds and leaving it in His hands. To offer it up in prayer instead of fall prey to over-thinking.
Making those acts of trust does not make difficulties vanish, but it causes us to experience God’s faithfulness in reply.
We are creatures of control, who would rather have every minute planned out meticulously, yet in areas of uncertainty, there is also grace. We may find it difficult to trust Him in periods of “silence” or even “spiritual deserts”. Therese herself experienced a darkness of the soul, where she felt very far away from the Father and devoid of spiritual joys. Yet, in this period of her life, she turned to Him in even greater trust and entered more deeply into the experience of His faithfulness. When I have felt very far away from the Father, I have found it a time to draw ever closer to Him. The further I go away, the closer I am to the tabernacle. The Father has a way of drawing us ever closer to Him if only we let Him.
We start digging, and at first it’s not very pleasant, because we come face-to-face with our limitations and human deficiencies. But if we persevere, we’ll end by finding the wellspring.
Herein lies the fruit of our trust in Him, we may find it hard to do the hard labour and to Marie-Kondo our hearts. But it is necessary as only by clearing away the blockages of fear and shame can we give Him access to the depths of our hearts.
Let’s consider 2 questions in closing,
1. Why are you finding it difficult to trust God?
2. What areas of your life are you finding it hard to surrender to Him? How will you surrender these areas, little by little?
My reflection is adapted based on the following book, I highly recommend you give it a read!
The Way of Trust and Love: A Retreat Guided by St. Therese of Lisieux
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